USD Women's Basketball 1999-2000

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1998-1999 Sea✓.,o.n :ln ~ Toreros Post First Winning Season in Five Years; Dominant on Defense and at the USD Sports Center e.mtin.uina tire :Ri6e 1998-99 may not have been a breakthrough year for the University of San Diego, but it was a season of multiple im– provements both offens ively and defensively. USD posted a 14- 13 record in 1998-99, the Torero ' s first winning campaign since 1992-93 . Entering a new season poised on the brink of a new millennium, the Toreros appear ready to take the next step and challenge in the continually improving West Coast Conference. :B~t Stwtt of, tire ;l)eauk USD opened the season with a 6-4 record to open non– conference play - the Torero' s best start since the 1989-90 cam– paign when they went 9-1 . San Diego opened with a 23 point victory against UC Irvine ( 11 -14-98) and took to the road for a Pacific Northwest swing where they blitzed a pair of Big Sky opponents, Portland State, 80-44 (11-20-98) and Eastern Wash– ington, 56-35 ( 11-22-98). San Diego's offense was firing on all cylinders during their best start of the 90' s, outscoring their opponents by a average of 22.2 points per game in their six wins. 300tli v~ ~ ~e The victory against the PSU Vikings was especially meaningful for the Toreros since it was career victory number 300 for USD head coach Kathy Marpe. In her I 9 th season guid– ing the Toreros and her 25 th year in col legiate coaching, Marpe joined an elite group of current and former coaches to surpass the 300 win plateau. w~t ~ t ~ actum USD finished the non-conference schedule with 7-5 mark and entered West Coast Conference play and 1999 with a 72-60 victory against Pacific ( 1-2-99) in the USD Sports Center. San Diego hosted San Francisco in the WCC opener and downed the Lady Dons 58-49. The Toreros faced a tougher challenge the next night hosting defending league champion Santa Clara. After missing the conference opener with a broken toe, junior for- _-,•r--:==------7

powe r Saint Mary's and USD junior guard Susie Erpelding nailed a buzzer beater near the top of the key to capture the

thrilling 55- 54 victory to improve to 3-0 in

league play and pushed their winning streak to four games - their longest string of the season . The win was the Toreros ' first against SMC since 1995-96. :Jw.adW~ Unfortunately for the Toreros, they had to leave the friendly confines of the USD Sports Center and travel to Moraga for a rematch against Saint Mary 's . USD cou ld not find an answer to Gaels offense and dropped a tough 55-48 decision. The Toreros dropped their next three WCC contests, including road losses to Pepperdine ( 1-22-99) and Loyola Marymount ( 1- 23-99). USD hosted the Lions on their home floor the following week and lost a 66-65 battle on a last second shot for their only home WCC setback of the season. LMU was the on ly league school to sweep the Toreros in 1998-99. s~~;i) San Diego snap~ir fo ur game conference skid with a convincing 76-72 victory against league-leading Pepperdine ( 1-30-99) behind a 20 point performance from Erpelding. The Toreros took a 5-4 league mark with them on the Pacific North– west swing to Gonzaga (2-4-99) and Portland (2-6-99) losing both. . USD had another immediate shot of redemption hosting the Pilots and Bulldogs the following week with entirely differ– ent outcomes. The Toreros shocked Portland (2-1 1-99) in a 73- 70 overtime victory in front of a regional television audience. Gray came up big for the Torer~s once again with 17 points and 11 rebounds and was equally impressive two days later with a 19 point IO rebound performance aga inst Gonzaga (2-1 3-99) in USD ' s 72-54 win. Vicuvuj :JOJt tire 9w.ad WWtJM)t,J San Diego returned to the road in search of their first road win since late November and did not find it against even– tual league co-champion Santa Clara (2- 19-99), losing 67-51 to the Broncos. USD finally broke into the road win column the next night with a 52-42 victory against San Francisco (2-20-99) to sweep the Lady Dons for the first time since 1993-94. The victory secured a .500 WCC season for the Toreros. &tpef.dina = (jmnd Savwt l.JSD made a brief appearance at the 1999 West Coast Conference Tournament, falling to Portland, 63-48 in the open– ing round at Toso Pavilion in Santa Clara. Erpelding provided the lone Torero highlight, scoring a team-high 17 points to reach exactly 1,000 points in her USD career.

ward, Jess ica Gray re– turned to the Torero lineup , pouring in a game-high 18 points to power USD to a 53-51 win against the Bron– cos who were ranked 25 th in the nation at the time. It was USD 's first victory against a top-25 op– ponent since I 992- 93.

Three days USD ho sted wee

SIMlie &.pefdiru;

" FREE THROWS WIN GAMES. " - ROLLIE MARPE