USD Can’t Find the Range, Is Beaten by San Francisco

SAN DIEGO — Hank Egan, the University of San Diego’s basketball coach, ran every outside shooter he could think of into the first half of Thursday night’s West Coast Athletic Conference game against the University of San Francisco.

All he wanted was to find one shooter who was hot. Instead, his team threw up enough bricks to add a new wing to the USD Sports Center.

The Toreros, not including center Keith Colvin’s 4-of-5 shooting inside, made only 3 of 17 field goals from the perimeter before halftime and fell behind, 32-22, en route to a 75-59 loss in front of 1,533.

Guard Danny Means was 1 for 6 in the first half and three other starters, Mike Haupt, Jim Pelton and Randy Thompson were a combined 0 for 3.

Marty Munn, the Toreros’ leading scorer, came off the bench but he missed the only shot he took in six minutes. John Sayers was 0 for 2 off the bench and Omar Parker was 0 for 1.

“If somebody had come in and hit a couple of shots, it would have been nice,” Egan said. “We were getting shots for people who usually make them, but they didn’t make them.”

What’s worse is that USD’s poor shooting carried over to a poor defensive performance, one that didn’t allow the Toreros to make much of a run in the second half.

As a result, USD had its 11-game home conference winning streak snapped and fell to 8-8, 0-3 in WCAC play. A team that didn’t figure to challenge for the regular-season championship isn’t challenging. Loyola Marymount and USF (3-0, 11-5) are already three games ahead of USD.

What upset Egan most afterward, however, wasn’t the fact that his team couldn’t find its shooting touch.

“I thought our intensity level was up where we wanted it to be but we just kept failing to execute on defense and we kept making critical turnovers,” he said.

The two most crucial giveaways came with six minutes to play when USD had closed to within 51-41 after trailing by 18 points early in the second half.

First, Craig Cottrell dropped a pass and USF’s Keith Jackson got the loose ball and went the other way for an uncontested layup. Then, Means had the ball stripped away by Rodney Tention, who drew a foul and made two free throws.

It was 55-41 with 4:26 remaining, and it was time to start thinking ahead to Saturday night’s home game against Santa Clara.

But not before a couple of parting thoughts from Egan.

“What’s tough is that we keep finding a way to break down,” Egan said. “I think our turnover rate is ridiculous.”

USD committed eight turnovers in the first half and finished with 15. That’s actually a better rate than the 46 turnovers the Toreros made in losses to Loyola and Pepperdine last weekend.

“Right now, the big problem is our confidence,” Means said. “We make a mistake now and it’s like the end of the world. Earlier this year, we would make a mistake and then bounce back. Now, we don’t seem to recover.”

USD recovered from its poor shooting first half to shoot 54% in the second half, but the Toreros never got closer than six points. USD finished the game hitting 22 of 50 shots (44%).

The Toreros limited Mark McCathrion, the Dons’ leading scorer, to 10 points, but Tention had 14 and Joel DeBartoli scored 13.

Cottrell finished with 17 points to lead USD and Colvin had 11.

“I think it’s time we’ve got to do some checking into the way we’re playing,” Egan said, searching for answers. “Maybe we’ve got to start playing it differently.

“Now that conference play has started, the level of play has gone up and we’re just not rising up to the challenge.”