Box Score (Anchorage) – San Francisco closed out play in the 2011 Carrs Safeway Great Alaska Shootout with a 81-71 loss to New Mexico State in the third place game Saturday night at Sullivan Arena. The Dons (5-3) could not slow down the big front line of the Aggies (5-1).
Senior forward
Angelo Caloiaro scored a team-high 22 points on 5-for-8, from the field, 4-of-7 from 3-point range. Junior forward
Perris Blackwell added 12 points, 10 coming in the second half, with six rebounds while senior forward
Rashad Green capped a strong tournament with 11 points and six assists.
New Mexico State held a monstrous 36-22 rebound advantage, 14-6 on the offensive glass. San Francisco committed 25 personal fouls and the Aggies capitalized, to the tune of 30-for-38 from the stripe (.789). Christian Kabongo scored a game-high 23 points and went 11-for-12 from the charity stripe.
USF dished out a season-high 24 assists with just 12 turnovers. Sophomore guard
Cody Doolin had seven assists and junior guard
Michael Williams added a season-high five assists with seven points.
San Francisco built a 57-50 lead on a Green lay-up with 11:21 to go. It was all Aggies from there as they outscored the Dons 31-14 to improve to 5-1 on the year.
USF led by as many as seven points in the first half at 24-17 on a floater by Doolin with 10:28 remaining. New Mexico State stayed in it by attacking the rim and took full advantage at the charity stripe converting 17-of-21 (.810) in the opening 20 minutes.
In fact, the Aggies needed just eight field goals (two 3-pointers) to reach 35 points. The Dons attempted just four free throws in the first 20 minutes and shot .452 (14-31) from the field, .333 (4-12) from beyond the arc. USF limited the Aggies to a .348 percentage from the floor (8-23) and forced six turnovers. Caloiaro and Green paced the Dons with seven first-half points apiece.
San Francisco returns to action when it travels to Missoula to take on Montana Thursday, December 1. Tip-off against the Grizzlies is set for 6:00 PM (PT) in a game carried live on USFDons.com via Stretch Internet.
