USD Stays Steady in the Stretch : Basketball: Toreros hold off charge by undermanned USF to gain 81-74 victory.

After a month of near misses and blown leads, the University of San Diego could have let another one get away Thursday.

But this time the Toreros were mad as hell and weren’t going to take any more. The result: a 81-74 victory over the University of San Francisco--in front of 1,123 in the USD Sports Center--and sole possession of fifth place in the West Coast Conference.

The Toreros had an 18-point lead in the first half and led by as many as 16 with 15:24 left before seeing it drop to three points with 48 seconds to play.

But the Toreros made their free throws down the stretch and took hold of the game for their second consecutive victory after seven losses in a row.

“We lost two games--to Gonzaga and Loyola Marymount--in almost exactly the same circumstances,” USD Coach Hank Egan said. “We had leads and didn’t take care of business. Tonight we took care of business. They had some momentum, we gathered ourselves, went back and won the ballgame.”

With the victory, USD improved to 13-13 overall and 5-8 in the WCC, a game ahead of St. Mary’s, which lost at Santa Clara.

The Toreros were playing a depleted USF team that suited up only eight players, one of whom had a bad back. Another fouled out. USD appeared on the verge of blowing the Dons out midway through the first half, building a 31-13 lead with nine minutes to play in the half before settling for a 44-33 halftime lead, thanks to 73% shooting.

But looks can be deceiving, Egan said. “They’re a handful to deal with because of their offensive capability,” he said of USF. “I feel like we were in a scramble situation the whole time. Even when we were up big in the first half I was saying, ‘Don’t get to feeling like this is over.’ ”

The Toreros went to center Brooks Barnhard early and he responded with 10 of his 15 points in the first half, to lead six USD players in double figures.

USF made its comeback behind the inside work of center Darryl Johnson, who finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds, and guard Orlando Smart, who had 17 points and eight assists.

“They shoot the ball so good, they’ve got Johnson down low and Smart at point guard and he’s a handful, you help out on him and he hits one of those shooters,” Egan said. “I thought . . . they’d be hard to deal with because of their offensive firepower.”

With the Toreros holding a 56-40 lead, USF scored eight consecutive points, then began to trim the lead a point at a time. The Dons got it down to 59-54 on a Johnson dunk with 9:40 left.

A three-pointer by Wayman Strickland, who had 12 points, made it 69-61 with 5:22 to play, but that would turn out to be USD’s last field goal.

With 48 seconds left Smart hit a jumper in the lane to cut it to 77-74.

But Gylan Dottin, who finished with 14 points, made two free throws with 41 seconds left, and Michael Brown (11 points) made two more with 14 seconds to protect the lead.

“It hurts, trying to scrap with eight people,” USF Coach Jim Brovelli said. His team fell into last place in the WCC at 3-10 and 11-15. “We got behind too early, we came out flat and it’s very difficult to come from that far down.”

Overall USD outshot the Dons, 54% to 42%, and stayed close in rebounds. 40-34.

USD can clinch fifth place with a victory in its last regular-season game Saturday against St. Mary’s and would probably play Loyola Marymount in the first round of the conference tournament next weekend in Portland.

“We just hope we’re playing good when we get to the tournament,” Egan said. “There’s no sense have a preference (of opponent) ‘cause there’s not much we can do about it.”

And don’t ask Egan if the Toreros have turned things around.

“Two expressions I hate are ‘They’ve turned the corner’ and ‘They have arrived,’ ” Egan said with a smile.

“You always try to turn the corner, and you never arrive in this business. When you think you have, you’re not around long.”