News Scrapbook 1986

San Diego, CA (San Diego Co.) Evening Tribune (Cir. D. 127,454)

JAN 3 1

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. .TOretoS- cause . . ·waves··to break

By T.R. Reinman Trib11ne Sportswriter A T HALFI'IME last night at. thf USD Sports Cent!!r, there was ao"arelyaudible. pfft, pf!~ pfft coming from under the stands. It was 'the fat lady, doing her thing ·with an al.flmizer. T~e opera wouldn't be over until she. sang, but ·she was tuning up. USD led Pepperdine 39--22, and it hadn't ~n getting· any cfoser as the hall wound down. With four minutes left, it bad been USD 31, Pepperdine 19. . "What ·a marvelous first half," Pepperdine coach Jim Harrick said afterward. "They played a flawless game there. That was the key." There are two halves to every game, though. The fat lady would have to wait. "We heard them getting fired up at halftime," said USD guard Paul Leonard. "We thought we'd come out just as tough. We came out thinking it was 0-0, trying to play that game.'' Pepperdine scored six straight points and the tempo, which had been

• ·all USD's in the first hall, was up. The next pfft, pf!~ pfft was the sound of the Toreros offense. "The half went to Pepperdine, which was ranked 20th in the nation and started to look more like it after the break. "It's about as well as we've played in a month," said Har- rick. In the end, though, the very end, the game went to USD 69-64. Their ninth win in 10 games and fourth straight gave the Toreros a 14- 5 record overall. It also put them in a second-place tie in the WCAC with Pepperdine at 4-1, one game behind Loyola Marymount, which visits USD tomorrow. "This was fun," said USD coach Hank Egan as he mopped himself. That was after he watched a 13-point lead with 3:41 left shrink to three points with 56 seconds left. "I got to watch a heckuva game and Jose weight at the same time." The second half was like a bit from MAD magazine. Pepperdine came out playing man-to-man mstead of Please see TOREROS, E-7

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fall on Madden and Thompson inside. What, the Toreros worry? Thomp- son's been the high scorer in six games, the same number as Murphy. And Mark Manor, who was 3-for-3 in his eight minutes last night, can fill in for Murphy at guard. But Murphy expects to be ready to play. Former USD guard Rusty Whit- marsh stopped in the training room to congratulate Murphy, and told him to rub a little mud on the ankle. "You've got two days; you'll be all right," said Whitmarsh. "Once you bear the whistle.... " "You know it," said Murphy, who also likes to hear the fat lady sing her victory number.

ard who had 12 points. "It worked for 'the first half, anyway. Now we've got to get it back together for the next three games." After LMU plays here, the Toreros play at Loyola Maymount and Pep- perdine next week. "In the next three," said Murphy, "we have to keep at it on the boards the whole time. We didn't tonight and it hurt us, but it didn't hurt us enough." Which brings up the matter of Murphy's left ankle. He sprained it with 2:09 left when he got tangled up with Dwayne Polee. He had it iced and taped last night and limped home on it. If be can't go full speed tomorrow, the scoring burden may

Continu~ From E-1 zone, titting schoolyard shots, ~reat- ing turno crs - USD had one m the first alf, nine m the second - and whi tling a lead that was 16 points at 7:41 o n to those three near the end. Afte c , " ng 37 percent in the first hal£. the ives shot 60 percent in the second, wh,~ they won by 12 points. And along with Egan in the run- ning for the Alfred E. Newman "What, me worry?" award, there was forward Nils Madden. "If we blew 'em out all the way," said Madden, who had eight points and six assists, "it wouldn't have shown bow strong we were, strong enough to hang in." With USD shooting lights out in the first half, 58 percent from u,., floor, it was Pepperdine that had to hang in early. "My guys might have been surprised, but I wasn't," said Har- rick. "I saw their Montana State game on film. I knew those guys could shoot." Especially Pete Murphy, who led USD with 18 points, 12 in the first half when he hit 6-of-8. And none of them were cheapies. "One of our rules is, if you've got the open shot, take it," said Murphy. Even if you're in the parking Jot at the time? "When you've got a 7-foot center (Scott Thompson) and a 6-9 power forward (Madden), those are the guys they have to worry about," said Mur- phy. "That opens things up outside." Said Thompson, who bad 15 points and nine rebounds, "No one man's a scoring machine here. That's ar asset of this team: Everybody plays and everybody contributes." As for assets, there was 6-7 Levy Middlebrooks, who scored no less than 12 of bis 16 points over Thomp- son in the second half. But it was Thompson who finally grabbed a de- fensive rebound with 33 seconds left, got fouled, and made his one-and- one. "There was definitely a little panic setting in," said Thompson. "They were in a scramble situation to put some points on the board, and their shots were going in." It was not a little, but it was too late. By that time, the fat lady had her cue. Next up, at 7:30 tomorrow night, is Loyola Marymount. "You'll see some offense from those guys," said Egan. "This was nice, but we've got to put it to bed and get ready for them." LMU guards Keith Smith and For- rest McKenzie are 1-2 in league scor- ing, and the Lions are averaging 83 points per game. "What we did tonight carried over from the last two games," said Leon-

Tribune photos ;y Janice Gordon

Staying in the race

Nil Madden of USD shoots over Pepperdi.ne's Levy Middlebrooks (50} and Dwayne Polee (32). ~ele Murphy (right) !ICOred 18 points to lead the Toreros to a 69-64 win. USD, tied with tepper- dme for second place in the WCAC, hosts first-place Loyola Marymount tomorrow at 7:3 p.m.