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USD Breaks Skid to Whip Canisius for Egan’s 100th

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

The University of San Diego broke out of a four-game funk Saturday night and finally gave Hank Egan his 100th win as the Toreros’ coach.

USD shot a season high 65.4% en route to a 95-71 win over Canisius College in front of 1,130 in the USD Sports Center.

Egan was all smiles after his team whipped the Griffins at their own game, defense. He really could care less about the milestone of winning No. 100 in his seventh season at USD against 79 losses. It was the way the Toreros played--just like the coach coached--and the fact they snapped a four-game losing streak in their first home game in 25 days.

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“I’m not too concerned about (reaching No. 100),” Egan said. “It’s the losing streak, and it’s important to get back on the right track.”

USD’s track was right for the first five games this season as the Toreros began 5-0. But then came a grueling road stretch that saw them lose to Indiana in the championship of the Indiana Tournament, UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Northridge and Eastern Washington. It was similar to a losing streak that preceded Christmas last year when USD fell to 3-7 before finishing strong at 16-12.

“I think we kind of got beat down on the road,” Egan said.

Said backup senior center Keith Colvin, who matched two career highs with 15 points and eight rebounds and drew the highest praise from Egan for sparking the team, “It was real nice to come home. We’ve had a rough road schedule.”

He added, “It’s hard to play on the road. It’s almost like playing against eight guys . . . five team members and three officials.”

Colvin was only one of a number of standouts for the Toreros, who will be proud to put this game film in Egan’s library as victory No. 100.

Pat Holbert had what Egan called his best game of the season, scoring 21 points on eight of 11 shooting and playing a terrific defensive game.

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Anthony Thomas had 18 points, Kelvin Woods 15 and Michael Brown 9 as the Toreros scored more points against Canisius (5-3) than any other team this year. Syracuse, for example, beat the Griffins 92-83 earlier this month.

Canisius was also limiting opponents to 36% shooting from the floor, third best in the NCAA, before USD made 34 of 52 shots. In its previous four games, USD was shooting just 40.8%.

In part because of poor shooting but more because of a tough man-to-man defense by USD, Canisius made just 25 of 73 (34.2%) shots, including just two of 17 (17.6%) from three-point range.

The Griffins did make 19 of 21 foul shots, but it didn’t matter much. USD never trailed in the game and began opening up a double-digit lead with 4:12 left in the first half.

Asked if this was the Toreros’ best game of the season, Egan said it might have been.

“Especially defensively,” he said. “We really played very well defensively.

“We have to play well as a team, and we did that (Saturday).”

Canisius center Ed Book led five Griffins in double-figure scoring with 16 points, but Book had just six points in the first half. Nixon Dyall, the Griffins’ leading scorer, rebounder and shooter coming in, fouled out with 10:52 left, but he wasn’t much of a factor with only 11 points on three of eight shooting.

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