Stephen F. Austin
San Diego
Late Run Dooms `Jacks On West Coast
11/15/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 15, 2011
Box Score
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Antonio Bostic had 22 points and Darius Gardner added 16 points and six assists, but the Lumberjacks could not withstand a late run from the University of San Diego and dropped a 66-61 decision on Monday night at Jenny Craig Pavilion.
SFA (1-1) led by seven points after erasing a 38-29 halftime deficit with a quick 11-2 run to open the second half and a 10-2 run midway through the half to take the lead, but the Toreros (1-0) outscored SFA 11-0 in less than a three-minute span to take the lead and pick up the win in their season opener.
San Diego made the most of its reserves, outscoring SFA's bench 32-7 on the night and held preseason all-Southland center Jereal Scott to just five points on 2-of-7 shooting. Still, the SFA backcourt kept the `Jacks in the game all night as Bostic and Gardner combined for 18 points in each half. Desmond Haymon added nine points, but no `Jack other than Scott was able to manage more than five points for the evening.
SFA hit 48.9 percent of its shots from the floor, but was just 11-for-21 at the foul line, while USD hit 14 of 20 from the charity stripe, including 5 of 7 in the final five minutes of the game. The Toreros were led by true freshman guard Johnny Dee, who had 22 points in his collegiate debut that included hitting 3 of 7 from behind the 3-point arc.
The `Jacks started off well, leading by as much as six points midway through the first half behind a pair of 3-point buckets from Gardner and six early points from Desmond Haymon, but went more than 10 minutes without a made field goal from the 11:37 mark of the half until a triple from Bostic in the right corner at the 1:08 point of the half.
In the meantime, the Toreros outscored the `Jacks 23-6 to turn the six-point deficit into as much as an 11-point lead when freshman guard Chris Anderson found big man Chris Manresa all alone for a two-handed dunk that gave USD a 22-21 lead with 8:34 left in the half.
San Diego's bench outscored SFA's extras 22-2 in the half and kept SFA from getting a point in the paint. Still, SFA got six free throws and three three-point buckets in the opening 20 minutes, and used a late 5-0 spurt to get back to within single digits at the break.
Bostic then got the `Jacks going in the second half, scoring six of SFA's first eight points of the period as SFA needed just 5:02 of game time to erase the deficit and knot the game at 40-40. But it took nearly another six minutes for SFA to finally retake the lead when Bostic nailed a jumper with 9:36 remaining in the game in the midst of a 10-2 Lumberjack run.
Unfortunately, the Toreros had plenty of gas left in the tank and got points from three different players in their 11-0 run, retaking the lead on a pair of free throws from Dee .
The `Jacks will stay on the road this weekend when they travel to Lubbock to take on Texas Tech on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. -SFA-
