Coming into the game Thursday night, both the USD men’s basketball team and Santa Clara were tied in the West Coast Conference standings, but solid defense and timely scoring helped pushed the Toreros past the Broncos at Jenny Craig Pavilion.
USD (14-7, 5-4) never trailed in the game and its defense forced Santa Clara (7-14, 4-5) to use its entire shot clock on a number of possessions in the first half.
Junior guard Isaiah Wright scored a game-high 21 points, 15 of those in the second half, in the 66-58 win against the Broncos. The win was a much-needed one for USD, which dropped four of its last five games.
“It’s nice to get back on the winning side of things,” USD coach Lamont Smith said. “I thought we turned in a solid defensive effort tonight and Isaiah Wright did a good job getting to the line. Santa Clara came in with an identical league record as us and we knew they were going to be scrappy and a tough matchup.”
Juwan Gray added 14 points for the Toreros in his first start of the season. This proved Gray had earned his way into the starting lineup, Smith said.
“He gave us a big lift tonight with his first start,” he said.
For all but 15 seconds of the game, the Toreros were leading. Gray kicked off the first half by burying a trey. Isaiah Pineiro followed with four points to extend the starting lead to 7-3.
With 5 minutes left in the half, a 3-pointer by KJ Feagin tied the game at 18-all. USD responded back with a 7-0 run capping it with a Pineiro’s 3-point play. The Toreros was leading by six points at the half with 30-24.
USD led by as many as nine points in the second half. For the game, the Toreros shot 46.3 percent from the field (19-41) and was 5-of-14 with the 3-pointers.
Pineiro scored 11 points with seven rebounds and was 4-for-4 from the floor. Olin Carter III had 10 for the Toreros.
Up next, USD heads to Los Angeles on Saturday to take on the LMU Lions at Gersten Pavilion.
