Strickland Puts Spark in Toreros

Bodies were flying. Bruises were deepening. Tempers were rising. It was opening night in the West Coast Conference, and the University of San Diego needed somebody to dig them out of the muck.

Enter, Wayman Strickland.

USD’s mercurial senior played the sixth-man role to perfection Saturday, scoring 16 of his 19 points in the second half and turning the game around with a two-minute burst as USD defeated Santa Clara, 67-58, in front of 2,314 in the Sports Center.

The victory improved USD’s record to 9-5 overall, and got the Toreros off to a 1-0 start in the WCC, along with Pepperdine and St. Mary’s.

Santa Clara fell to 4-10 despite 21 points from 7-foot-1 center Ron Reis.

The Broncos appeared to be in control after running off a 9-0 spurt early in the second half to take a 36-28 lead in a game USD Coach Hank Egan called “a war all night long.”

At that point, Egan called a timeout and told his team to become more aggressive on offense.

Strickland took the advice to heart. He had a three-pointer in the midst of a 7-0 USD run that got the Toreros back in the game.

A few minutes later, another Strickland three-pointer gave the Toreros a 40-38 lead, their first of the second half.

When Santa Clara’s Rhea Taylor made a three-pointer to tie the game at 48 with 5:40 to play, Strickland took over.

First, he made his fourth three-pointer of the game for a 51-48 lead. Then he made a steal, was fouled and converted both free throws, and a half-minute later he stripped the ball away again and took off for a breakaway layup.

Santa Clara pulled to within a point with 2:25 left, but the Toreros made their free throws in the final minute to pull away.

“Wayman Strickland is a gamer,” Santa Clara Coach Carroll Williams said. “He wanted the ball down the stretch.”

Michael Brown, Gylan Dottin and Chris Grant each scored 10 points for the Toreros. Melvin Chinn joined Reis as the only Broncos in double figures, with 11 points.

Strickland made five of seven shots and added five rebounds. The Toreros made eight of 14 three-point shots.

“Wayman played a heckuva ballgame for us, he opened things up by hitting the trifecta,” Brown said.

Egan started Strickland in the season’s first eight games, but inserted Brown in the lineup in an attempt to help Brown shake a shooting slump. Strickland has learned to live with the role.

“Wayman’s exciting all the time, for different reasons,” said Egan, who has had his share of heated exchanges with Strickland over four seasons.

“I’m not too sure he’s happy about (coming off the bench). I know how he feels--I was sixth man my senior year (at the Naval Academy). That’s not how you envision your senior year but that’s how it’s got to be as long as it helps the team. When he comes off the bench he’s about to show me I’m an idiot for not starting him, and that’s how you have to think in that role.”

Strickland, asked to comment on his new role, said with a sly smile, “I’m just glad we won the game. I can’t control my minutes.”

In typical West Coast Conference form, the teams slogged their way to a 26-26 halftime tie, with nobody earning style points.

USD needed three minutes simply to score, and after the Toreros tied the game at 14 both teams went scoreless for more than four minutes.

Reis was the dominant force in the half, scoring 14 points and getting USD center Brooks Barnhard into quick foul trouble.

Barnhard’s replacement, Grant, provided an answer, hitting two three-pointers and forcing Reis to come outside on him. Grant scored eight points in the half. Strickland and Geoff Probst also added three-pointers to help offset Reis’ offense.

With the Broncos surrounding Kelvin Woods and holding USD’s scoring leader to six points, the Toreros had trouble establishing much offense until Egan told them to look to shoot. From that point, they outscored the Broncos, 39-22, and Reis wasn’t a factor.

“In the timeout was just talked about being more aggressive. It wasn’t anything (specific) I said,” Egan said. “We just gutted it out when we weren’t playing good, we could’ve gone south a couple times and we didn’t.”

Strickland said, “That’s the kind of game you want to play. Every game in the conference will be like that.”

That will be fine with Egan--as long as they’re victories. “It’s fun,” he said. “But it’s exhausting.”