Toreros Survive Turnovers

The queasy feeling Reed Watson had Monday morning was nothing compared with the feeling he had after the first few minutes of the men’s basketball game Thursday night between the University of San Diego and St. Mary’s.

Watson, a 6-foot-8 junior forward for USD, spent most of Monday ill with something that might have been the flu. He didn’t practice that day, didn’t do much of anything.

His condition improved Tuesday and Wednesday, and particularly Thursday, as the Toreros came from behind to defeat the Gaels, 83-68, in a West Coast Conference game in front of 1,395.

However, 10 minutes into the game, Watson began feeling ill again. Sick because the first three times he touched the ball, he turned it over.

Watson, though, is tough. Two years on a Mormon mission to South America helped make him that way.

He rebounded. Watson scored eight of the Toreros’ final 12 points in the first half, and finished with 14 points.

With the victory, USD (10-6, 3-1) won for the third consecutive time and moved into a first-place tie with Santa Clara and San Francisco. Santa Clara routed San Francisco, 86-59, at Santa Clara.

“I think in the last three games,” Watson said, “I had just three turnovers all together. I can think of four tonight right now.

“And that is just a sick feeling.”

Watson had five turnovers, but he more than made up for them by making all five of his shots from the field and four free throws. The 14 points were two fewer than his season-high against San Jose State.

USD trailed much of the first half, but scored the final six points of the first half and the first six of the second half to take a 43-35 lead.

The Toreros led by as many as 12 three times and 65-54 with 8:31 left. At that point, St. Mary’s began chipping its way back.

Eric Bamberger, who led the Gaels with 20 points, made a free throw, and Darrell Daniel made two free throws and a 10-foot jumper to pull within, 65-59, with 5:35 left.

Geoff Probst, who earlier had missed his first free throw and was one-for-13 for the season, made both ends of a one-and-one to put the Toreros up 67-59.

A few minutes later, the Toreros pulled away for good with a 9-0 run. Pat Holbert made his third three-pointer, Anthony Thomas sank a 10-foot baseline jumper and two free throws, and Wayman Strickland took a pass from Holbert and layed one in to make it 77-63 with 3:10 left.

Thomas finished with 20 points and six rebounds, his third big night in a row after scoring 24 and 25 points against Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount last weekend.

Holbert finished with 13 points and five assists in his best performance since being benched three games ago. Strickland added 11 points and six assists, and Michael Brown 10 points and six assists.

One of Brown’s assists was a 30-foot pass to Dondi Bell, who jammed the high pass down for two points. Bell finished with four points.

“I’ve been saying for a long time,” said USD Coach Hank Egan, “that I don’t think we’re a ball club where one guy can carry us. We’re not built like that. We’re the kind of ball club that has to get contributions from a lot of people.

“This is going to look like a blowout, but this was a struggle all the way.”

Watson was struggling, too, but he managed to snap out of it.

“The first time in, he was a turnover machine,” Egan said. “Then he came back out in the second part of the first half and did a great job for us.”

St. Mary’s fell to 5-12, 1-3. Dave Fehte, who became coach at St. Mary’s after Paul Landreaux resigned under pressure, fell to 1-3.

USD plays host to San Francisco at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.