USD Men's Basketball Opens Season with Win
Plenty of people have high hopes about the Toreros this season. The roster includes four seniors from last year’s squad which won 20 games. Under first year coach Sam Scholl, the team began its season Tuesday night vs Weber State and came away with a 83-66 victory.
Things started slowly for the USD as the Toreros struggled to hit shots early on, going 1-10, and found themselves down 16-5 halfway through the first half. USD also turned it over eight times in the first half. However, the strong defense that was a cornerstone of the teams success last season, kept the Toreros in the game.
An Isaiah Wright layup cut the Wildcats lead to 23-21 with 2:53 to go in the first half but USD was outscored 9-4 in the final minutes of the first half and found themselves down 32-25 going into the break.
After shooting just 33% from the field and 0-7 from beyond the arc in the first half, the Toreros caught fire in the second half shooting 65% and 7-10 from three point range. USD started the second half on a 9-2 run to tie the game up at 34.
Redshirt freshman Joey Calcaterra scored his first career college points to give the Toreros a 38-37 lead and senior Isaiah Pineiro had a steal and slam dunk on the next possession to put the Toreros in full control of the game.
USD would not trail for the rest of the night as they dominated the second half and cruised to victory in their first game of the season.
Pineiro had a double-double, leading the team with 25 points and 12 rebounds. Olin Carter III and Wright both had 13 points and Alex Floresca had 12.
The Toreros will be back in action this Friday as they travel up Northern California to take on UC Davis.
