Box Score
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - USF clamped down on Loyola Marymount to earn a 62-53 victory over the Lions Saturday afternoon at Memorial Gymnasium, halting a five-game losing streak in the process.
USF's aggressive play on the defensive end of the limited the Lions to 28.3 percent shooting for the game, including 2-of-20 from three-point range.
Junior
Cole Dickerson paced all USF scorers with 18 points while freshmen Avry Holmes and Mark Tollefesen came off the bench to add 11 and eight points, respectively as the Dons picked up their first conference win of the season.
Matt Christiansen, who made his first start of the season in place of Tao Xu, finished with six points, as did
Chris Adams, who nailed a pair of three-pointers.
Cody Doolin scored just two points but did an outstanding job in keeping LMU's Anthony Ireland in check, limiting the high-scoring guard to 13 points on 4-of-11 from the field.
USF shot 33.3 percent from the field after shooting a season-low 32 percent Thursday against Santa Clara.
Both teams got off to a very slow start offensively. It took the Dons 4:13 to score their first basket on a
Cody Doolin layup, which tied the game at 2-2. The teams were tied at 12-12 with 8:51 left in the first before the Dons took a 25-22 lead at intermission.
USF made five of its first 10 shots from the floor to start the second half and raced to a 44-30 lead with 11:32 remaining after Tollefsen drained a three-pointer.
The Lions answered with a 10-0 run ot their own and cut the lead to 44-40 on a jumper by Ireland with 8:26 left.
With USF nursing a 52-47 lead with 3:26 left, Holmes drained a three-pointer to give the Dons a 55-47 advantage with 2:59 remaining.
LMU cut the lead to three at 55-52 after Bruce English completed a three-point play, but USF scored seven of the game's last eight points from the foul line to defeat the Lions for the 11th time in the last 16 games between the two schools.
"I'm proud of our team defensively," said USF head coach
Rex Walters. "They are big and strong and we did a good job down there. It was a grind-it-out game but we were really commited to the defensive game plan. Our guys were really locked in.
"We were a lot more patient offensively, even though we didn't shoot it real well."
USF, now 8-11 overall and 1-5 in the WCC, will play four of its next five games on the road beginning Thursday night in Portland. The Dons will wrap up the Pacific Northwest swing Saturday in Spokane against Gonzaga.
