Jan. 13, 2009
Complete Release in PDF Format
USF TRAVELS TO THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST TO TAKE ON PORTLAND AND GONZAGA: San Francisco heads to the Pacific Northwest in its first West Coast Conference road trip of the season, beginning Thursday night at the Chiles Center against Portland. The Dons go to the Rose City in search of their first league win after suffering home losses to a pair of 2008 NCAA Tournament teams San Diego (65-50) and league-leading Saint Mary's (66-54) in the opening weekened of WCC play. USF has won 10 consecutive games in the series against the Pilots, including a 60-59 victory in the Chiles Center last season. Portland boasts a 6-1 record on its home floor. After taking on the Pilots, San Francisco travels to Spokane to tackle defending WCC regular season champion Gonzaga Saturday night at the McCarthey Athletic Center. LOWHORN CHASING BILL RUSSELL: Junior forward Dior Lowhorn enters Thursday's game at Portland with 981 career points. It will be the 49th career game in the Green and Gold for the Bay Area product, who seeks to become just the second player to record 1,000 career points in less than 50 games. USF legend and Naismith Hall-of-Famer Bill Russell surpassed 1,000 career points in his 49th contest as a Don with a 24-point outburst in a 62-50 victory against Colorado in the 1955 NCAA Championship Semifinals. LOWHORN NEARING 1,000 CAREER POINTS MILESTONE: Junior forward Dior Lowhorn continues to charge up the USF career scoring lists and enters Thursday's contest at Portland with 981 career points in 48 games for a 20.4 points per game average. The Bay Area product currently rates 31st on the Dons all-time scoring ladder and needs seven points to crack the top-30. Lowhorn seeks to become the 30th member of the Green and Gold to reach 1,000 career points and the second this season. Senior guard Manny Quezada accomplished the feat at Boston College (12/29/08). DONS BASKETBALL ON COMCAST SPORTS: Both games in USF's Pacific Northwest road swing will be televised. The Dons Thursday game against Portland will be broadcast live in the Bay Area on Comcast Sports and in the Northwest on Fox Sports Northwest. The Gonzaga game will be broadcast live in the Pacific Northwest on Fox Sports Northwest but will not be available in the Bay Area. USF AT A GLANCE USF DONS BASKETBALL ON GREEN 960 AM: USF men's basketball returns to the airwaves and cyberspace for the 2008-2009 season and all games will be available live at USFDons.com, with the bulk of the schedule available on Green 960 AM. Join Pat Olson for the play-by-play in his 18th year behind the microphone courtside. USF Hall-of-Famer Jim Brovelli will join Olson on selected broadcasts. Other features available on USFDons.com include live scoring via GameTracker, courtesy of CBS Sports. USF AT PORTLAND GAME TIME: USF's game at Portland Thursday, January 15 is set for a 8:00 PM tip-off at the Chiles Center in a game carried live in the Bay Area on Comcast Sports. Some schedules had the game time listed at 7:00 PM. Dior Lowhorn - 2008 WCC FIRST TEAM AND LEAGUE SCORING LEADER: After sitting out the entire 2006-07 season under NCAA transfer rules, junior forward Dior Lowhorn made up for lost time in his first season in the Green and Gold. The Texas Tech transfer and Bay Area native turned in a prolific sophomore campaign for the Dons and led the West Coast Conference in scoring in overall (20.5) and WCC (20.5) contests - the first USF player to pace the league in scoring in both categories since John Cox accomplished the feat in 2004-05 (20.0/19.9). Lowhorn scored 636 points last season, good for fourth place on the Dons single-season scoring charts. A 2008 Mid-Major All-American and a All-WCC First Team pick - the first USF underclassmen tabbed since Gerald Walker in 1995 - Lowhorn scored at least 20 points in 18 games, including a career-high 29 at No. 12 Oregon (11/24/07). Lowhorn led the Dons with five double-double nights last season and scored 19 points six times and was the only USF player to reach double-digit scoring in every game. Lowhorn was named to the 2008-09 WCC Preseason Team, as selected by the league's head coaches. Dior Lowhorn AMONG NATIONAL SCORING LEADERS: Junior forward Dior Lowhorn ranked No. 27 among final 2007-08 NCAA Division I scoring leaders at 20.5 points per game. Lowhorn is the first Don to crack the top-30 on the NCAA scoring list since John Cox (1999-05) did so as a senior. Lowhorn (20.3) ranked No. 25 among Division I leaders as of January 12, 2009. LOWHORN SURPASSES 1,000 CAREER POINTS: With a 23-point night at USC (12/1/08) junior forward Dior Lowhorn surpassed 1,000 combined career points and enters Thursday's contest at Portland with 1,211 points with 981 coming at USF and 230 at Texas Tech. Last year, the San Franciscan ranked fourth in USF single-season scoring history in his first year on the Hilltop, finishing with 636 points. Manny Quezada SURPASSES 1,000 CAREER POINTS: Senior guard Manny Quezada enjoyed a solid second season on the Hilltop, averaging 13.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game. For his efforts, Quezada earned 2008 WCC Honorable Mention selection. The New York native ranked third among WCC assists leaders (4.6), was fourth in turnover to assist ratio (1.57) during league games. Quezada notched his second career 30-point game with a 30-point outburst at No. 12 Oregon (11/24/07) and turned in his first double-double at Pepperdine (2/2/08) with 11 points and a career-high 12 assists. After scoring 17 points at Boston College (12/29/08), Quezada became the 29th USF player to surpass 1,000 career points, and enters Thursday's game at Portland with 1,032 points good for 27th on the career scoring list. Next up is Tim Owens (1990-92), who scored 1,046 in two seasons. DONS TWO-HEADED MONSTER: USF relied heavily on the one-two punch of sophomore forward Dior Lowhorn and junior guard Manny Quezada last season and figure to count on them once again in 2008-09. Last year the duo combined for 39 of San Francisco's 55 points in a 71-55 loss at Oklahoma (11/9/07), accounting for a remarkable .701 of the team's offensive output. The pair combined for a season-high 59 points at No. 12 Oregon (11/24/07). Last year in 31 games, Lowhorn and Quezada accounted for 34.4 points per game - .515 of the Dons total offense. Seventeen games into 2008-09, the duo averages 31.7 points per game, .455 of the team's output. NEW FACES PRODUCING IN THE DONS BACKCOURT: Three backcourt newcomers are making their presence felt for USF in their first year in the Green and Gold. Freshman East Bay product Kwame Vaughn ranks third on the team in scoring through 17 games at 10.2 per contest with 3.6 rebounds after a career-high 22 points at San Jose State (12/22/08). Junior Dontae Bryant adds 4.5 points and leads the team in assists at 3.1. Freshman guard Chris O'Brien has started 12 games for USF and adds strong defense to go along with 4.1 points and 2.2 rebounds per contest. As a group, the newcomer guard trio averages 18.5 points, 7.9 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game. DONS DOING IT WITH BALANCE: With 17 games in the books for the 2008-09 season, USF's offense is sharing the scoring load. No fewer than four Dons average better than 9.0 points per game, led by junior forward Dior Lowhorn (20.3). Senior guard Manny Quezada (11.4), freshman guard Kwame Vaughn (10.2), and junior forward Blake Wallace (9.1) lead the balanced USF offensive assault. DONS AND THE PILOTS GAME #18, WCC GAME #3 - SCOUTING PORTLAND: The Pilots enter the second week of West Coast Conference play with a 9-7 overall record and dropped their league opener 67-50 at Gonzaga on Saturday, snapping a two-game winning streak. Winners of four of its last six games, Portland owns a 6-1 record in the Chiles Center with the only blemish a 63-58 loss against Eastern Washington December 3. The Pilots average 70.2 points on .465 shooting, including a .373 clip from beyond the arc, to go along with 32.2 rebounds per game. Junior guard Nik Raivio paces Portland offensively at 15.8 points per game leading three in double-digit scoring. Junior center Robin Smeulders chips in 12.6 points and 5.7 rebounds, while junior guard T.J. Campbell adds 10.5 points with a team-high 4.9 assists per game - good for second among WCC leaders. Eric Reveno is in his third season on The Bluff and owns a 27-52 record as the primary Pilot. TEAM COMPARISONS - 2008-09 SEASON - (As of 1/13/09): Team PPG Margin FG% 3-FG% FT% RPG APG TOPG SPG BPG USF 69.7 +0.6 .457 .383 .685 31.1 12.9 14.2 5.7 2.4 POR 70.2 -0.1 .465 .373 .689 32.2 15.0 15.3 6.8 1.9 PORTLAND PROBABLE STARTERS (As of 1/13/09) 2007-08 MEETINGS: at USF 73, Portland 60 (2/18/08); USF 60, at Portland 5 (1/19/08) SERIES RECORD/STREAK: USF leads 52-21/USF won 10 ON THE AIR/ON THE WEB: UP NEXT FOR THE DONS: San Francisco travels to Spokane, WA to take on defending West Coast Conference regular season champion Gonzaga. Tip-off time against the Bulldogs is set for 7:00 PM at the McCarthey Athletic Center. The contest will be carried live in the Pacific Northwest on Fox Sports Northwest, but will not be simulcast in the Bay Area. USF NEWCOMERS READY FOR BATTLE: USF under first year head coach Rex Walters welcome no fewer than seven newcomers to the Hilltop for the 2008-09 season. A pair of junior college transfers - junior guard Dontae Bryant (Portland, OR) and junior forward Blake Wallace (Irvine, CA) - combine with five prep standouts - Angelo Caloiaro (San Jose, CA), Chris O'Brien (Irvine, CA), Clint Pekarsky (Granite Bay, CA), Peter Smith (Escondido, CA) and Kwame Vaughn (Oakland, CA). Blake Wallace ON THE RISE: Junior forward Blake Wallace has already made an impact for USF in the early going. The Irvine Valley JC transfer ranks fourth on the team in scoring (9.1), second in rebounds (4.2) and is third on the team with 18 3-pointers. Wallace, who started his career at Pepperdine in 2006-07, scored a career-high 21 points in his Green and Gold debut at Hawaii (11/14/08) in the Verizon Wireless Tip-off Classic. Wallace scored 15 points in a 65-63 win against Colorado State (11/29/08) and turned in his first USF double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds in a double overtime win against Long Beach State (12/6/08). Kwame Vaughn PROVIDING BIG SPARK FOR THE DONS: Freshman guard Kwame Vaughn has shown signs of developing into a clutch player for USF. The Oakland native ranks third on the team in scoring at 10.2 points per game, leading all USF newcomers. Vaughn scored 17 points against Texas State (11/16/08) and added 11 points in back-to-back wins versus UC Santa Barbara (11/24/08) and Colorado State (11/29/08). Vaughn turned in a strong performance in a win at Boise State (12/13/08) with 18 points. The East Bay product scored a career-high 22 points - 19 coming in the second half - at San Jose State (12/22/08). Angelo Caloiaro PROVIDES A BIG LIFT: Freshman forward Angelo Caloiaro has made an impact for the Dons in the early going and through 17 games averages 6.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. Caloiaro scored a career-high 15 points in a win against UC Santa Barbara (11/24/08) and 14 points with a career-high seven rebounds against Colorado State (11/29/08). The Mitty product has made 14 3-pointers. Dontae Bryant DRIVES AND DISHES: Junior guard Dontae Bryant has done a solid job quarterbacking the USF offense in his first season in the Green and Gold. Bryant averages 4.5 points, 2.3 rebounds and shares the team lead with 3.1 assists. The Oregonian has dished out at least four assists in seven games this season. DONS NOTCH PROGRAM VICTORY NUMBER 1,198: San Francisco collected the 1,198th victory in program history in a 80-40 blowout against Cal State East Bay (1/3/09). In the 95th season of Division I basketball on the Hilltop, the Dons have their eyes set on 1,200 all-time wins.
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