Feb. 16, 2002

Box Score

For the second straight game, USF struggled without their injured point guard LyRyan Russell and fell 88-55 to the host Toreros in San Diego Saturday night.

Andre Laws scored 20 points to pace the Toreros (14-11, 6-6 WCC) and Jason Blair added 17.

USF (12-13, 7-5 WCC), who lost consecutive WCC games for the first time this season, was paced by 18 points by Shamell Stallworth and a career best 10 points by point guard Jason Gaines. The Dons, in addition to its backcourt woes, lost Hondre Brewer to an injured ankle with 18:41 remaining in the second half and backup center Tayo Akinsete fouled out with seven minutes left. Darrell Tucker scored just 8 points and pulled 8 rebounds.

The Dons are now tied for third in the WCC with Santa Clara at 7-5, with home games against #8 Gonzaga next Friday and Portland Saturday to end the

USF struggled from the outset trailing 5-0 before rallying to take a 9-7 lead. It would be their last lead of the night as the Toreros jumped ahead by scoring the next 16 points to go ahead 23-9. USF went ice cold from the floor missing 13 of 14 shots as the host Toreros on senior night, took control.

The Toreros collapsed inside on Darrell Tucker, who scored just two points for USF before intermission on 1-8 shooting, and the Dons were just 9-29 for the half from the floor and 0-2 from the line. San Diego, meanwhile, paced by 12 points by Andre Laws made 16-33 shots and made 11 of 15 free-throws.

It was the second consecutive game that USF has trailed by more than 20 points at the half over teams that they handled just two weeks ago at Memorial Gymnasium. The Dons fell at Santa Clara 77-67 Thursday night.