USD women battle, but fall at home to Saint Mary’s; Toreros men struggle in loss

The University of San Diego women’s basketball team has talent.

But the Toreros are young — five freshmen and five sophomores play in their rotation. And when they don’t shoot straight, they lose.

Which was the case Sunday afternoon at the Jenny Craig Pavilion, when Saint Mary’s turned back a fourth-quarter USD rally to score a wire-to-wire, 57-49 West Coast Conference victory.

After trailing 44-27 after three periods, USD outscored the Gaels 22-13 over the final 10 minutes and rallied from 18 down to trail by just six at 53-47 before they ran out of time … but not energy.

The five Toreros on the floor at the finish — sophomore post Eva Ruse, sophomore guard Kylie Ray and freshman guards Olivia Owens, Ysbella Von Seipler and Jessica Ajayi — were all part of the comeback.

“We’re getting better, we’re growing,” said first-year USD head coach Blanche Alverson after the Toreros fell to 6-11 overall and 0-4 in WCC play.  “We’re figuring out who we are. We’re young and this is a tough stretch, four games in eight days and a lot of this and that with little time to practice and prepare.

“We’re making progress. But I thought we went a little backwards today. We can’t dig ourselves a hole and fight back. We have players who will fight back. But we’ve got to get to a point where we’re starting the game with higher energy. At the end of the day, you have to make shots, bring energy and make stops. And do it from the beginning of the game. You can’t wait until the second half to turn it on.”

Making shots was a huge problem for the Toreros against the Gaels (10-7, 1-3). USD was just 7 for 30 from the floor at halftime and 1 for 13 from 3-point range as they fell behind 34-19 (the Toreros trailed 16-8 after the first quarter).

USD finished shooting 33.9% from the floor (19-for-56) and 3 for 24 from beyond the arc. The Toreros have not been a great shooting team this season; they’re shooting just 28.6% on 3-point tries.

“We had good looks,” said Alverson, who said the bigger early problem on offense was a lack of aggressiveness. USD passed up some open drives to the basket. “We have to attack,” said Alverson.

Attack is one thing the 6-foot-2 Ruse did. She scored 14 points, pulled down 10 rebounds, drew eight fouls, blocked a shot and had two steals in 29 minutes off the bench. Ray again led USD with 17 points and five assists, but had an off-game shooting — going 7 for 22 from the floor and just 3 for 13 from 3-point range. Owens had eight points and three steals.

“Ruse battles,” Alverson said.

Toreros men fall

Overall, it was a tough week for USD’s rebuilding basketball programs.

The women have lost four straight WCC games since conference play began on Dec. 28.

And the men lost 98-70 at Santa Clara on Sunday afternoon to complete an 0-2 road trip to the Bay Area. The men have lost three in a row starting with Tuesday’s 99-93 loss to seventh-ranked Gonzaga at home.

Guard Ty-Laur Johnson returned from the concussion he suffered late in the Gonzaga game and led USD with 21 points and seven assists in 30 minutes. But freshman forward D’Arrae Goodwin missed a second straight game with a lower back injury.

Johnson made 8 of 15 field goal attempts. But the rest of the USD team hit just 16 of 45 shots. USD was outrebounded 49-25 by the taller and more physical Broncos, who never trailed. Santa Clara finished the first half on a 20-10 run and scored the final eight points in the game.

USD is 6-10 on the season and 1-3 in WCC play. Santa Clara is 13-4 and 4-0.