Michael Baham
Staff Writer
San Francisco continued their home dominance by trouncing Pepperdine (7-17) and handing Loyola Marymount (11-12) a loss last week. Both games featured very spread out scoring with 11 players recording at least one basket in the game against Pepperdine and nine players recording a made field goal in the matchup with LMU.
In the game versus the Waves, senior Ronnie Boyce led the Dons with 21 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. Junior Chase Foster added 13 points and 6 rebounds of his own. In the first half, San Francisco held Pepperdine to a paltry 27.6% shooting from the field and went into the break with a 41-21 lead. The Dons swiped seven steals before halftime, four of which came from freshman Charles Minlend. After the break, Pepperdine played much better and kept pace with San Francisco bucket-for-bucket but after putting themselves into such a large deficit to start, USF cruised to a 77-56 victory. The Waves shot an embarassing 11-26 from the free-throw line. This 20+ point victory was the Dons’ sixth of the season.
Their second game of the week was much more competitive against the LMU Tigers. Other than LMU’s opening basket to start the scoring, USF held the lead throughout the entire game. They pushed the lead to double-digits multiple times throughout the game but every now and then the Tiger’s were able to close the gap to a single possession difference. But by the game’s final buzzer, USF looked up to a 10-point victory, 74-64. Sophomore Matt McCarthy recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Boyce poured in 16 points with an efficient 6-of-9 from the field. The Don’s work on the defensive end also stuck out with their nine steals and eight blocks.
With their 17-8, 7-5 WCC record San Francisco is going into their final six games confident they can make some noise in Vegas for the WCC tournament. Their next two games will be their last home games at War Memorial this season.
The Dons take on Santa Clara on Thursday, February 9 at 8pm and Brigham Young on Saturday, February 11 at 8pm. Satuday’s game will also be Senior Night, so be sure to come out and support or follow live on theW.tv.
Photo Courtesy of Dons Athletics/ FLickr
