Men's Basketball Makes It Close But Fall at USC, 97-84
Malave leads all scorers with 26 points on the night
November 4, 2005

Complete Box Score (PDF)

The USC Trojans jumped out to a 33-6 lead 11 minutes into the first half of their exhibition game Friday, November 4 versus Cal State Dominguez Hills in front of 1,137 fans at the Lyon Center on the USC campus, but had to battle in the second half to secure a 97-84 victory over the Toros.

Junior Lodrick Stewart paced the Trojans with 19 points and six rebounds and sophomore Gabe Pruitt added 18 points. Both guards hit four of six from beyond the three-point stripe. As a team, USC connected at a 62 percent clip from three-point range, hitting 13 of 21.

Freshman guard Ryan Francis scored 12 points on 4 of 7 shooting and led the Trojans with seven assists. Fellow freshman Jeremy Barr, a 6-8 forward, also scored 12 points by going 4 of 5 from the field and 4 of 6 from the line.

Cal State Dominguez Hills junior forward Mario Malave led all scorers with 26 points on 10 of 19 shooting, while also pulling down eight boards. Nonso Nibo scored 14 points for CSUDH going 6-10 from the field, while point guard Carlos Rivers also poured in 14 on 5-12 from the floor. Jonathan Toliver and Mike Steed rounded out the double-digit scoring with 10 points apiece.

The Trojans shot 59.3 percent from the field for the game and led 49-27 at the break. Cal State Dominguez Hills shot only 31 percent in the first half, but hit 58.8 percent of their second half shots to close the gap. The Toros controlled the boards all night, outrebounding the Trojans 38-27, including a 13-6 edge on the offensive glass.

Cal State Dominguez Hills fell to 0-1 in the exhibition season. They will travel to Cal State Northridge on Friday, November 11 to take on the Matadors. First tip is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.