Gonzaga Ends USD’s Season With a Clank : College basketball: Toreros held to three-for-23 shooting in first half and lose, 61-48, in WCC Tournament.

Gonzaga held the University of San Diego to three-for-23 shooting in the first half, then survived a second-half Torero comeback before pulling away to a 61-48 victory Saturday in the first round of the West Coast Conference Tournament Saturday.

Point guard Jeff Goss led the Bulldogs with 13 points, nine coming in the second half, as USD fouled to try to get back into it. Marc Armstead added 10 to a balanced Gonzaga attack. Kelvin Woods topped USD with 14 poiints, but hit only four of 13 field-goal attempts.

For the game, USD finished at 31.9% from the floor, after shooting 13% in the first half.

It was the first-ever WCC tourney victory for the 19-9 Bulldogs, from Spokane, Wash. It was also Gonzaga’s third straight victory over the Toreros and ended USD’s season at 14-14.

“It was a war,” USD Coach Hank Egan said. “It was that type of game. I’m not taking anything away from them. They kicked our butts.”

Gonzaga combined stifling defensive pressure with cold shooting by the Toreros to build leads of 11-2, 18-4 and 25-10 in the first half. USD, which missed 11 of its first 12 shots, was within 31-17 at halftime only because of its 11-for-12 free-throw shooting.

“We’re not a very good shooting basketball team,” Egan said. “We deserved to shoot three-for-23 in the first half because we didn’t execute.”

“We got our heads down and they took over,” Woods said. “We were always playing catch-up.”

Gonzaga, which was eliminated by the Toreros in the first round of last year’s WCC tourney, came out pressuring USD in the tournament’s opening game. When the Toreros missed their first five shots, Gonzaga assumed control of the game.

“We wanted to play physical,” Armstead said. “We knew they can’t stop Jeff Brown at the offensive end, so we knew we had to wear them down defensively.”

The Toreros almost didn’t have to stop Brown. The 6-9 center, named to the all-conference first team a day earlier, was saddled with two early fouls and sat out the final 11 minutes 51 seconds of the first half. Jarrod Davis, Gonzaga’s other all-conference selection, also sat out most of the half, but the Toreros couldn’t capitalize.

“It didn’t seem to make a big difference,” Egan said. “We didn’t execute. Some of that was due to them, a whole lot of it was due to us.”

The Toreros made a serious run at catching up early in the second half. After Gonzaga Coach Dan Fitzgerald switched from a swarming man-to-man to a zone defense, the Toreros used a 15-6 run to get within five, 37-32. The run included three consecutive three-point baskets, by Michael Brown, Geoff Probst and Reed Watson.

But Armstead stole a pass near midcourt and slammed the ball home at the other end to swing the momentum back to Gonzaga.

“Usually I look up and see Fitz telling me to hold it up,” Armstead said. “But I didn’t look up this time. I thought it was time for a little showtime.”

Then the Gonzaga defense took over, holding USD to just 16 points in the final 12:20. When the Toreros began fouling to stop the clock and get the ball back, the Bulldogs drove the nail into the coffin by sinking 13 of its 14 free throws in the final 2:13, including seven of eight by Goss.

The Bulldogs, who effectively worked the ball inside to Armstead, Brown and Scott Spink throughout the game, also enjoyed a narrow 29-27 rebounding advantage. Gonzaga forward Eric Brady led all rebounders with eight, while Woods topped USD with six.

Fitzgerald played down the Bulldogs’ first tourney victory after five straight losses.

“We’ve faced some great teams in the first round of the tournament,” he said. “This was an important game for us for obvious reasons, but it’s our 19th win and we’re still alive looking for 20.”