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Dons Drop 77-75 Decision to San Diego In WCC Quarterfinals
March 3, 2007
The USF men's basketball team ended its season with a 77-75 loss to San Diego in the quarterfinals of the West Coast Conference tournament Saturday in Portland.
The Dons (13-18), were paced by 16 points by Manny Quezada, 13 points by Johnny Dukes and 11 by Alan Wiggins, Jr., while San Diego, who faces Gonzaga in Sunday's WCC semifinal, was paced by 17 points by Ross DeRogatis and 16 by Gyno Pomare. With the win, the Toreros improved to 18-13 on the year.
USF led by seven at halftime and took an early 10 point lead when Manny Quezada hit a triple to start the second half, but San Diego the began to take control, especially on the glass.
The Dons outshot San Diego 47.5% to 41.4%, but the Toreros made 13 of 27 three pointers in the contest and nailed 16-20 free-throws. The Dons struggled at the free-throw line making just 7 of 12.
USF outrebounded the Toreros 22-13 in the first half, but San Diego turned that around pulling 25 rebounds to 10 for USF after intermission.
"I really thought that the first half we came out with a lot of intensity." said Dons' head coach Jessie Evans. "We caused them to turn the ball over and got some transition looks, and as a result we had a double-digit lead leading into the half. I thought a bad omen was to give up that three-point basket right at the end of the half.
"It was a tough loss, One of the keys is that we gave up too many second chance shots in the second half. We also lost some points by making some poor decisions in our transition game. To San Diego's credit they hit some big threes against some pretty good defense. But our guys never gave up and had resilience. We made a late comeback but ran out of time.
"It was a tough year for us. We battled a lot of adversity and injuries. We came back and finished third in this league and that made this a bitter pill to swallow."
Armondo Surratt played for the first time since injuring his knee on February 5th, and made nine points on three three-pointers.
It was the final game for three USF seniors, Wiggins, Dukes and Surratt.
The Dons led 36-29 at the half after USF made a 10-0 run late in the period paced by Johnny Dukes' seven points in the streak. Dukes hit his first five shots in the game as USF shot 50% before halftime while holding the Toreros to just 32%. San Diego stayed in the game by making seven of 17 three pointers, while making just three of 14 inside the arc.
USF will hold its annual men's basketball banquet Friday at the Carnelian Room.
