Southwest Missouri State Stops the Toreros, 70-63

The University of San Diego faced what Coach Hank Egan said was a defensive team the likes of which the Toreros haven’t seen.

Until they faced Southwest Missouri State Saturday night in the championship of the Pizza Hut Classic in front of 7,557. USD dropped a 70-63 decision and learned it has to work harder to beat a team like the Bears (4-0).

“This is the best defensive team we’ve faced,” he said. “I don’t think we worked hard enough to break it down.”

Tournament MVP Andre Rigsby scored 19 points as Southwest Missouri claimed the tournament title for the third time in five years. The Bears have appeared in post-season play the past six years--four times in the NCAA tournament and twice in NAIA championships.

Kelvin Woods hit a layup and USD trailed by only two, 23-21 with 4:48 left before halftime, but Rigsby hit two three-pointers and added two other baskets as the Bears outscored USD, 14-2, to take a 37-23 lead at the intermission.

“We missed some free throws and we had some empty trips during that stretch,” Egan said.

Woods, who scored 18 points for the Toreros (3-3), hit a 14-foot jumper to cut the lead to 57-49 with 5:53 left. But Rigsby came up with another three-pointer, at 5:16, to put the Bears on top by 11.

USD closed the gap to nine points three times in the next four minutes, but the Toreros simply ran out of time.

Egan was pleased with the effort and said some of the things USD did well wouldn’t show up on a box score.

“They’re very efficient for this time of year,” he said. “They do a lot of things that don’t show up on the stat sheet.”

Wayman Strickland, who was USD’s second-leading scorer with 14 points, hit a layup with three seconds remaining for the final seven-point difference.

Rigsby, who was eight of 12 from the floor, was joined on the all-tournament team by Torero Gylan Dottin and Centenary’s Louis Lumpkin, who led all scorers with 42 points in two games.

Dottin was USD’s leading rebounder, with 10, and also had 10 points.

Centenary set a Hammons Center scoring record with a 124-91 victory over Morgan State in the tournament’s third-place game.