SAN FRANCISCO – The University of San Francisco men's basketball team was held scoreless for the first seven and a half minutes of the contest but ultimately the slow start did not matter as the Dons earned their first postseason win since March 2011 with a 72-68 win over visiting Colgate on Wednesday night.
 
USF (19-15) received a tremendous effort from its reserves.  The Dons' bench accounted for 32 of USF's 72 points, 26 of them coming from Souley Boum who matched his career-high set Dec. 30 at Portland.
 
Boum scored the Dons' first bucket on an acrobatic drive to the basket while being fouled.  From there his athleticism was too much for the Raiders (19-14) who had no answer for the freshman from Oakland.  Boum finished 9-for-16 from the field and was 2-for-5 from 3-point range.  He scored 14 of his 26 points before the break to give the Dons a huge boost.
 
In the second half, it was Matt McCarthy who was the Dons' big offensive threat.  McCarthy finished the night with his second double-double of the season scoring 16 points and grabbing a career-high 14 rebounds.  All 16 of McCarthy's points came after the intermission. 
 
Both teams struggled offensively in the first half and the Dons went into the locker room leading 24-17 at the half. The Dons shot 31.0 percent in the first half, going 9-for-29.  Colgate shot just 6-for-30. 
 
Colgate finished the night shooting 31.7 percent going 20-for-63.  Their 3-point shooting in the second half kept the Dons from pulling away.  The Raiders shot 6-for-15 from beyond the arc after the intermission and was 17-for-18 from the free throw line.
 
Leading the Raiders in scoring was Jordan Burns who scored 20 points, he was one of three players from Colgate to finish in double figures.
 
GAME NOTES

• The win over Colgate is the Dons first postseason tournament win since Mar. 19, 2011 when the Dons defeated Hawaii 77-74 in the second round of the CIT.
• USF improves to 30-21 all-time in postseason tournaments, they are 1-2 in the CBI.
• Matt McCarthy's double-double is just the third of the season for USF.  He had the first against Radford on Dec. 19.  Frankie Ferrari has the other in the win over Pacific on Feb. 22.
• The 26 points by Boum gives him 359 on the year.  He surpasses Darrell Tucker for fourth all-time by a freshman in a single season.  Next up is Dons' icon Bill Cartwright who scored 375 points in his freshman campaign in 1975-76.
• USF outrebound the Raiders 49-34.  The 49 rebounds are two shy of the season-high recorded at Portland on Dec. 30.  USF converted 15 offensive rebounds into 16 second chance points this evening.
• With the win, USF improves to 9-5 when committing more turnovers than their opponent.  USF had 12 on the night, Colgate had 11. 

 
 
UP NEXT
The Dons will remain in the friendly confines of War Memorial at the Sobrato Center for the second round of the CBI.  USF will face Utah Valley who defeated Eastern Washington 87-65 on Tuesday.  The game is slated for a 7:00 p.m. start but that is subject to change.  Tickets are available at Dons Ticket Central.