Gonzaga Shocks Toreros : Basketball: USD loses, 70-64, after shooting only 27% in the second half.

For the first three minutes, the University of San Diego Toreros looked unstoppable. Every pass was crisp, every rebound theirs, nearly every shot fell through the rim.

Surely this West Coast Conference men’s basketball game Thursday against Gonzaga would be the Toreros’ seventh victory in row.

Unfortunately for USD, the game lasts 40 minutes, and the other team is permitted to fight back.

Gonzaga did exactly that, stealing a 70-64 upset victory in front of a standing room-only crowd of 2,500 and knocking USD out of first place by a few percentage points.

The Toreros fell to 13-7, 6-2 after struggling through one of their worst second halves of the season. Pepperdine, which plays tonight at San Francisco, is technically in first at 11-8, 5-1.

USD, which scored only two points during a 7:52 stretch, made only seven of 26 shots (27%) in the second half. USD’s total was only three more than its lowest this season--a 68-61 loss at Santa Clara to begin the 1991 WCC season.

The Toreros, which defeated Gonzaga, 89-80, Saturday in Spokane, scored 34% of their first-half points in the first 2:53. They went cold after that, limping to the locker room with a slim 35-33 lead.

Michael Brown started things off with a three-pointer from the left baseline. After a Gonzaga basket, Wayman Strickland nailed a three-pointer from the top of the key.

Kelvin Woods then made an inside basket, Brown a driving layup and Dondi Bell a lay-in off an offensive rebound to give the Toreros a 12-2 lead.

Rout? Hardly. The Bulldogs systematically whittled the deficit to two by halftime and then took its first lead, 38-37, with 16:25 left.

The Bulldogs, who had lost five of seven coming in and five of six on the road this season, never trailed after taking a 42-41 lead with 12:05 left and had a 10-point lead, 64-54, with 2:53 remaining.

USD cut it to two, 66-64, after Pat Holbert buried a three-pointer with 24 seconds left, but Kendall Simmons and Jamie Dudley made two free throws each to end the scoring.

“Maybe (the fast start) was the worst thing that could have happened to us,” USD Coach Hank Egan said. “Because (Gonzaga) was there for the whole 40 minutes. They were prepared for us. They outplayed us. And they kicked our butts.”

USD point guard Geoff Probst re-injured his right ring finger with 59 seconds left after banging it against the floor in a scramble for a loose ball. The Toreros were 2-3 when Probst missed five games earlier this year with the injury, a broken finger.

The early prognosis, by team Dr. William Curran, is not good.

“He might have broken the finger,” Curran said.

In addition, Gonzaga was playing without its second-leading scorer, Brian Frederickson, who has mononucleosis and did not make the trip.

In his place--this was the first lineup change Gonzaga’s had all season--Martin Dioli started for the first time in his career and scored eight points.

Dioli didn’t even play last year, but Bulldog Coach Dan Fitzgerald talked him into coming out after a prize recruit reneged on a commitment to play there.

USD was led in scoring by Strickland with 19 points. Brown and Woods added 10 each and Bell eight points and eight rebounds.

Jarrod Davis, the WCC’s fourth-leading scorer, led the Bulldogs with 19 points and nine rebounds.

Gonzaga shot 56.5% in the second half.

“They played a pretty darn good basketball game tonight,” Egan said. “We played hard, but we didn’t execute. The only place I thought we were lacking was at the defensive end of the floor.