That five-game winning streak USD was riding entering West Coast Conference play? Nothing but a faded memory.
After losing to Santa Clara 59-57 Thursday night before 1,435 at Jenny Craig Pavilion, the Toreros are 1-4 in the WCC and lamenting another conference home game that got away.
With 5 minutes, 15 seconds to play, Olin Carter III hit a rainbow 3 at the shot-clock buzzer, supplying the hosts with a 56-53 lead, their biggest of the night. The Toreros’ final six possessions ended as follows:
A Cameron Neubauer missed 3; a missed Carter trey; Neubauer hitting one of two free throws; turnover; Carter, a 72 percent free-throw shooter, missing the front end of a one-and-one; Brett Bailey, an 80 percent free-throw shooter, missing two from the line; Carter hoisting and missing a rushed 3 with about three seconds to play, Bailey grabbing the rebound and desperately tossing in a shot from the baseline at the buzzer.
But did it beat the buzzer?
The officials conferred at the scorers’ table, studied the replay and waved off the shot.
Six possessions, one point, one turnover, four missed free throws, three missed shots, all beyond the arc. Another loss, dropping USD to 8-9 overall. Santa Clara improved to 9-9 and 3-2 in the WCC.
The Toreros fell apart at crunch time.
“We’ve got to determine what we want to be,” said head coach Lamont Smith. “We can’t be solely a second-half team.”
The Toreros trailed by as much as 13 in the first half before cutting the deficit to 35-29 at intermission.
While USD rallied and took a late lead, the Toreros were in part done in by what had been a strength this season: free-throw shooting. USD came in as the WCC’s most accurate team from the stripe, hitting 75.9 percent.
Thursday: 13 of 20, 65 percent.
“We got to the foul line. We just didn’t make the free throws,” said Smith.
Bailey led USD with 15 points and nine rebounds. He was joined in double figures by Neubauer and Carter with 11.
Santa Clara senior guard Jared Brownridge led all players with 20 points, giving him 2,030 for his career and moving him into ninth place all time in the WCC. Brownridge was coming off a five-point game against Loyola Marymount when he shot 1 for 11.
A driving Brownridge layup with 1:07 to play proved to be the game-winning shot.
“He’s a terrific basketball player,” said Smith. “He’s scored more than 2,000 points for a reason.”
Norcross is a freelance writer.
