This Week in Toros Men's Basketball
February 6, 2006

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This Week in Toros Basketball: The Toros take to the road this week, traveling to Cal State L.A. & Cal State Bakersfield for key CCAA match-ups. The Toros are a combined 0-2 against the Golden Eagles and ‘Runners, falling against both schools the weekend of January 6-7.

Toros Take Two of Three Last Week: The Toros returned home last week and enjoyed the fruits of the Torodome, winning two of their three games played, including last Monday’s 97-92 defeat of the Far West’s 3rd-ranked team, Chaminade University, and the CCAA’s cellar-dwelling San Francisco State Gators last Saturday, 79-62.

In the Chaminade upset, Carlos Rivers tallied a team-high 22 points, including a perfect 7-of-7 from the free throw line, as the Toros played their best basketball game of the year. Shamont Brown finished with 19 points for the Toros, while Mario Malave’s 13 and Jonathan Toliver’s 12 points rounded out CSUDH’s double-figure scorers. Both teams sizzled from the floor, with each making better than 50% of their shots from both the field and 3-point line, as well as combining for 23 makes in 24 attempts from the charity stripe.

Four days later against the Far West’s 4th-ranked team, Sonoma State, CSUDH couldn’t dig itself out of a 49-26 halftime hole despite outscoring the Seawolves by 18 in the second half as part of converting 69.2% of its shots after intermission. Rivers and Durwin Williams shared game-high scoring honors with 20 points each in the loss as the Toros’ comeback fell five points short.

The next night against winless San Francisco State, sophomore Mike Steed took center stage with his 6-for-7 shooting from the field, including a perfect 3-for-3 from behind the arc, as the Toros regrouped with a 79-62 win. After playing to a 24-25 deficit in a lethargic first half, the Toros awoke after the break to outscore the visitors 55-37 in the eventual rout. Rivers added 13 points while Brown chipped in 12 and Williams 11 in the Toros win. To punctuate their second-half effort, Rivers led a 3-on-1 fast break with just two ticks remaining in the game, resulting in a Nonso Nibo two-handed alley-oop reverse slam dunk, putting an exclamation point on the comeback win.

Hard to Guard: Junior point guard Carlos Rivers has been a man on a mission of late. After scoring a total of 15 points in his first two contests in Cardinal & Gold, Rivers has led the Toros’ offense in six of the past 10 games, exploding for 22, 29, 21, 17, 22 and 20 points, respectively. In those contests, Rivers is averaging 21.8 points per game, shooting at a 58.2% clip from the field and 59.1% from behind the 3-point line.

In addition, he has a +9 differential in assists/turnovers, and has misfired on just two of his 28 free throw attempts (93%).

Super Mario: Entering a crucial conference stretch for the Toros, junior Mario Malave has been a consistent go-to player for CSUDH. In just his first year in Cardinal & Gold, Malave has enjoyed 13 games with at least 10 points scored, and seven contests with at least 20 points to his credit.

In fact, Malave has been a barometer for the Toros’ play this year. In the eight wins, the 6’7” forward has averaged 19.1 points per contest, grabbing 5.4 rebounds per contest while sinking 71% of his shots from the foul line. In their 11 losses, however, Malave has poured in just 13.1 points, averaging just 4.3 boards per contest.

Approaching the Record Books: Junior transfer Trevon Bryant is inching his way towards the CSUDH record books for blocks in a single season. With eight games left in the regular season, Bryant is just 13 rejections shy of becoming the greatest defensive presence in Toro history. Currently, Bryant has 25 blocks, which includes 10 swats in his last five games, and needs to average just over 1.6 blocks per contest to establish himself as the Toros’ best.

Former Toro great Anthony Blackmon currently holds the record of 37 blocks in a single season, which he established in the 1988-89 campaign.

Toros Amongst the CCAA’s Best: Here’s a quick look at how the Toros stack up against the rest of the CCAA, with games played through February 4:

• FG% - Shamont Brown (6th, 54%), Mario Malave (T10th, 50%); Carlos Rivers (15th, 46%);
• Steals - Carlos Rivers (T6th, 1.5 spg), Mike Steed (T6th, 1.5 spg);
• Scoring - Mario Malave (7th, 15.9 ppg), Carlos Rivers (T9th, 14.5 ppg); Shamont Brown (25th, 10.5 ppg); Durwin Williams (29th, 9.5 ppg);
• Assists - Carlos Rivers (9th, 3.6 apg), Shamont Brown (15th, 3.1 apg); Mike Steed (17th, 2.8 apg);
• Rebounds - Durwin Williams (9th, 5.9 rpg), Shamont Brown (13th, 5.6 rpg), Mario Malave (18th, 4.8 rpg);
• Assist/Turnover Ratio - Carlos Rivers (12th, 1.33); Shamont Brown (16th, 1.16);
• 3-Pt. FG Made: Carlos Rivers (T15th, 1.6 pg), Jonathan Toliver (T15th, 1.6 pg);
• Blocks - Durwin Williams (18th, 0.47 bpg).

Rebound Central: After six games of being out-rebounded by 38 boards to start the season, the Toros’ hard work is paying off on the glass. During the first six games, CSUDH had out-rebounded its opponents in only two games, each by one board, while tying in the rebound category one time. Alarmingly, in the three other contests in which CSUDH was out-rebounded, the Toros were bested by eight boards in one contest, and by 14 and 18 in the other two.

However, CSUDH has taken charge of the boardroom in its past 13 contests, collecting a total of 66 more boards than their opponents to give CSUDH an overall rebounding edge for the year (33.1 to 31.3). In fact, the Toros have enjoyed three games in which they have out-rebounded opponents by at least 10 boards, including +11 against Cal Poly Pomona, +13 against Chaminade and +33 against Dominican University.

Making His Case: After seeing action in two games off the bench to begin the 2005-06 campaign, Durwin Williams has started 10 of the Toros’ 18 contests, including the last six games, and the Compton native has not disappointed. In those 10 starts, the 6’7” forward has averaged 11.4 points per game on 42-of-76 shooting from the field (55%), including six makes from behind the 3-point arc. Additionally, Williams has been solid from the line, sinking 24-of-31 from the charity stripe, and steady on the boards, tallying 6.7 rebounds per game as a starter, tops on the team in those 10 contests.

On the season, Williams is averaging 9.5 points and 5.9 boards per game, including a season-high 14 rebounds in the Toros’ 77-68 win over Cal State Monterey Bay on January 27.

A Work in Progress: Continuing the strong offensive effort that began 2006, CSUDH has maintained its solid production on the offensive end as it has won four of its last five contests, and travels to Cal State L.A. and Cal State Bakersfield this week. The Toros are shooting nearly 50% from the field (48.2%), and boast six players whose percentages from the floor are at least 45%: Trevon Bryant (59%), Durwin Williams (55%), Shamont Brown (54%), Mario Malave (50%), Mike Steed (48%) and Carlos Rivers (46%).

Also, the Toros have narrowed the gap between CSUDH’s and their opponents shooting percentages, to the point of mirroring the figures (CSUDH - 48.2%, Opponents - 48.6%). Behind the 3-point line, however, CSUDH still is trailing its counterparts, connecting on 38.1% of their attempts compared to 41.5% for Toro opponents.

More Progress: Splitting games against Sonoma State and San Francisco State last weekend, the Toros currently have five conference wins in the 2005-06 campaign with eight games left, one season removed from garnering just six total wins in all of 2004-2005.

Thank You. No, Thank You: If there’s one glaring stat in the Toros 7-5 home record compared to their 1-4 road record, it’s the different in assists and turnovers. At home, CSUDH is enjoying a +44 in that category (204 assists / 160 turnovers) while suffering a -16 differential on the road (61 assists / 77 turnovers).

Toros Continue 2005-06 Basketball Web Cast Schedule With Waldcast.net: CSUDH and Waldcast.net continue their broadcast schedule for the Toros 2005-06 men’s basketball seasons. A total of 15 men’s games will be web cast, including two preseason exhibition contests, all of which can be heard here on the Cal State Dominguez Hills Athletics Website.

The next web cast is scheduled for this Saturday as the Toros travel to Cal State Bakersfield.

Longtime southland broadcaster Ronnie Wald, who begins his third year as the basketball broadcast voice of the Toros, will be calling the play-by-play.