Schizo Toreros Regroup, Edge Santa Clara

One moment, USD looked to blow out Santa Clara. The next, it was hoping just to survive.

In the end, after Geoff Probst had made his final seven free throws, Keith Colvin had nabbed a career-high 12 rebounds and Kelvin Woods had scored six consecutive points and a game-high 15, USD had prevailed, 75-64, before a standing-room-only crowd listed at 2,500.

It was strange. It was wild. It was fun.

How often do you see a 5-foot-11 backup point guard make three more free throws in the final 4:35 of the game than he had in his 17 previous games combined?

Probst did that Saturday. He entered the game having made only four of 19 (21%) from the foul line this season. Yet with the pressure on and the Toreros clinging to a precarious lead, he made seven in a row after missing his first to finish with a career-high 12 points..

How often do you see a 6-foot-8 backup center pull down five more rebounds than anyone else in the game, when one of those playing is 7-1 Santa Clara center Ron Reis, who had just two points and two rebounds in 15 minutes before being benched for the final 23?

Colvin did that, establishing a new career-high for himself in the process.

Woods’ points were not exactly uncommon--he had 20 and seven rebounds when Santa Clara defeated USD, 68-61, Jan.5 at Santa Clara--and he has always seemed to score in bunches.

But then again, how often does a team need that kind of production--not to mention 14 points from Michael Brown, nine from Pat Holbert (three three-pointers) and seven points and seven rebounds from Dondi Bell--after leading by 22 in the first half?

The Toreros needed all of this, and because they got it they improved to 16-7, 8-2, remained alone in second place in the West Coast Conference and have now beaten every team in the conference at least once. With four games remaining, a showdown with first-place Pepperdine Feb. 23 at USD could decide the regular-season title.

Santa Clara, playing without leading scorer Rhea Taylor (ankle), fell to 15-9, 6-4.

Wayman Strickland, who has made 60.7% of his three-point attempts in his last five games and was fourth overall in the WCC at 45.6%, started things off with a three from the left wing at 19:35.

After Melvin Chinn dribbled the ball off his leg, Anthony Thomas hopped on the loose ball, turned and hit a streaking Michael Brown, who put in an uncontested fast break layup. After another Bronco turnover, Kelvin Woods sank an eight-foot turnaround jumper from the baseline.

Still another Santa Clara turnover--this one a five-second dribbling violation by Chinn near midcourt--Bell followed Woods’ miss for a 9-0 Torero lead at 17:05.

Santa Clara finally got on the board at 16:44--Reis got his only two points of the half with two free throws--but Bell and Thomas each made layups to give USD a 13-2 lead at 15:50.

To that point, Santa Clara had gotten off only three shots; the Broncos missed the first two and Bell blocked the other to begin Thomas’ fast break layup.

Every USD starter had scored before Santa Clara made its first field goal, and all nine who entered the game had scored by the time USD took its second 22-point lead, 39-17, with 2:59 remaining.

That’s when things started falling apart. As quickly and fiercely as USD had built its seemingly invincible lead, Santa Clara began erasing it.

Thirteen consecutive points pulled the Broncos to within nine, 39-30, before Woods tipped in a missed shot, giving USD a 41-30 lead at the half.

USD scored nine of the first 12 points of the second half, but then Santa Clara came nearly all the way back. They did so by benching Reis and going with a quicker lineup.

“Those big early leads, I always worry about that,” USD Coach Hank Egan said.