(San Diego, CA)- Darrell Tucker equaled his career high 21 points as USF made its last trip to the USD Sports Center memorable taking a come-from behind 54-48 win over the Toreros. "It was a gut-check win for us," said Dons' head coach Philip Mathews. "We were a little shorthanded and Kenyon was in foul trouble, but we fought through it. We benched a couple of the starters and they played harder and wanted to win."

Tucker was one player who did not start and he kept the Dons in the game in the first period scoring 10 of USF's 15 first half points. He equaled his career high of 21 that he scored in the league opener at Gonzaga. USF now 16-6, 4-5 in the WCC can get back to .500 in league play with at St. Mary's Saturday night. San Diego, 14-8, 5-4 in the league lost just its second home game, the other an overtime loss to undefeated Gonzaga. It was just USF's fourth win in San Diego since bringing the program back in 1985.

The Dons got another double-double performance from the WCC's leading scorer and rebounder, Kenyon Jones who scored 15 points and added 12 rebounds in just 18 minutes before fouling out. The Dons trailed by seven at the half before making a run and tying the score at 30 with 12:51 remaining. USF took the lead for good at 41-38 on a Shammell Stallworth three-pointer with 5:50 left and led by at least two the rest of the way.

One of the keys that coach Mathews said before the game was that the team could not let San Diego beat them on the boards like they did in a 70-64 win at USF last Saturday. San Diego pounded USF 43-31 in that game, but USF outrebounded the Toreros 36-31 tonight. USF playing without starting point guard LyRyan Russell, suffering from a case of the flu and headaches and the team made turnovers, 21 including 15 in the first half.

USF trailed 22-15 at the half, a period that looked to be like it would be even more scoring. USF failed to score until Kenyon Jones made a three-point play with the Dons trailing 7-0. But then San Diego struggled to score, not scoring again until 8:07 left in the half, giving themselves a 9-5 lead.

The Dons' scoring again suffered with Kenyon Jones sent to the bench to 8:24 left with his second personal. USF closed to within 18-15 until freshman Roy Morris hit a three-pointer and two free-throws in the last 75 seconds to give USD a 22-15 lead.