CSUDH Men's Basketball Weekly
December 18, 2006

This Release in PDF

On Tap: The Toros have two games before the close of the 2006 calendar year, hosting CCAA foe UC San Diego this Wednesday before traveling to Phoenix to battle former CCAA school Grand Canyon on December 28, the first of 5-consecutive road games.

Last Week’s Recap: Senior Shamont Brown connected for a team-high 18 points to lead a balanced Toro attack as CSUDH took an 84-76 non-conference win over The Master’s College last Saturday.

Carlos Rivers got the Toros off quickly as he connected for a 3-pointer on CSUDH’s first possession of the contest as the Toros eventually pushed their lead to 30-21 on a Jonathan Toliver trey en route to entering the locker room up 43-35. Toliver continued his hot shooting after the break, connecting on another 3-pointer to give CSUDH its first double-digit lead at 50-39 just two minutes into the second half. After TMC cut into the Toros’ lead, Toliver hit consecutive treys to push CSUDH’s lead back to nine at 71-62, after which a Jamel Ward foul shot, a Trevon Bryant bucket and two more Ward free throws gave the Toros a 76-62 lead with 5:05 left in regulation.

Defense played a huge role for the Toros as Bryant picked up a game-high three blocks and Rivers drew two charges in the second half to set the tone of the final 20-minute session.

The Tritons hold a 14-8 edge in the all-time series, including two wins last season.

@ Grand Canyon (Thursday, December 28, 7 pm): The Toros travel to Phoenix to take on a well-rested Grand Canyon for their last game of 2006, 12 days after the Antelopes suffered a 104-60 rout at Cal State San Bernardino on December 16.

Entering the game at CSUSB, Richard Davis leads the ‘Lopes with 18.2 points per contest, and is followed in double figures by Rudy Bogan at 14.3 ppg and Bryan Lee at 12.0 ppg. Lee also paces GCU on the boards with a whopping 8.3 rebounds a contest and in the middle with 19 blocks on the season, while Bogan has picked opponents’ pockets on 12 occasions.

The Antelopes hold a 24-20 edge in the all-time series although the Toros have won four of the last five meetings between the schools, including the last two meetings which occurred during the 2003-04 campaign when GCU was a CCAA member. This will be coach Powell’s first-ever meeting against the ‘Lopes.

Droughtless in December: The Toros have picked up their collective play this month in posting a 3-1 record, with all three wins coming in their last three games. After shooting 39% and 37% in their first two games to begin the season against two top-5 ranked teams, CSUDH has responded with four games of shooting over 50% from the field.

In the close loss against Cal State Stanislaus on December 1, the Toros nailed 51% of their shots, and followed that effort with three more games in which they have connected on over half their shot attempts from the floor. CSUDH drained 51% from the floor against Chico State (Dec. 2), 51% against Hawai’i Hilo (Dec. 7) and 53% shooting just last Saturday against The Master’s College (Dec. 16), all wins.

Taking Care of Business: Despite their 3-3 start, the Toros have done a solid job in taking care of the ball, boasting an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.14, the 4th-best mark in the CCAA Conference. After 16 assists and 16 turnovers in the season-opener, CSUDH has 12 more assists than turnovers in their past 5 games, and have seen their opponents’ points average 67 points a game over the last 4 games, compared to 77 in two losses to begin the 2006-07 season, no small coincidence in CSUDH’s modest two-game winning streak.

What Brown is Doing For You: Senior leader Shamont Brown has picked up his game to begin December, and the Toros have followed suit. In a close loss to Cal State Stanislaus on December 1, Brown nailed 6-for-11 shots from the field en route to scoring 12 points. In CSUDH’s first win of the year the next night against Chico State, Brown was even better as he drained 4-of-6 shots and hit 9-of-12 free throws in the 68-60 win while in last Thursday’s blowout win against Hawai’i-Hilo, the New York native was nearly flawless, hitting 9-of-11 shots for a game-high 18 points as CSUDH walloped UHH, 83-51. Then, just last Saturday against Master’s, Brown again led all Toro scorers with 18 points, hitting 7-of-12 shots from the field.

In the last four contests, Brown has hit 55%, 67%, 82% and 58% from the field as CSUDH has won three-straight, a stellar 65% shooting percentage. In fact, Brown’s 61.8% percentage on the year is good for 2nd in the CCAA Conference.

Mr. Consistency: Senior Carlos Rivers has quietly been Mr. Consistency in the early going, tallying double-figure scoring in five of CSUDH’s six games, tallying nine points in the other contest. Rivers scored 11 points in the first two games of the year, and followed those efforts with 15-point and 13-point outbursts in the first CCAA weekend to kick off December. After his 9-point performance against University of Hawai’i at Hilo, Rivers drained 7-of-11 shots from the field last Saturday en route to 16 points in the win over The Master’s College.

Additionally, Rivers is shooting 80% from the charity stripe for the free throw-challenged Toros, and has drained 42% from behind the arc (11-for-26).

The Alarm’s Still Ringin’: An alarming statistic in the early going has been the (not-so) free throw line. The Toros are draining just 61.6% of their foul shots on the young season, compared to 78% for their opponents. Fortunately, CSUDH has earned 12 more free throw opportunities than their opponents, a great example of their aggressive play, but unfortunately, the Toros have been out-scored by nine (78-69) by the opposition at the charity stripe.

However, in what may be a sign of good things to come, CSUDH drained 13-of-18 shots from the foul line in last Saturday’s win over The Master’s College, with that effort’s 72% clip the best mark the Toros have enjoyed on the young season.

On Fire: Sophomore Jonathan Toliver lit up The Master’s College in the Toros’ win last Saturday, connecting for four 3-pointers on four attempts in the second half as CSUDH held of a late Mustang charge. After going 1-for-3 in the first 20-minute session, Toliver hit his first two treys at the 17:41 and 14:34 marks to boost the Toros’ leads to 11 and 10, respectively, and then hit consecutive 3-pointers in a span of 69 seconds to turn a 3-point Toro advantage into a 9-point cushion as CSUDH held on for the 8-point win.

Toros Amongst the CCAA’s Best...: Here’s how the Toros compare with the CCAA’s with games played through December 16:

• FG% - Shamont Brown (2nd, 62%), Carlos Rivers (16th, 48%)
• Assist/Turnover Ratio - Jonathan Toliver (2nd, 4.40), Carlos Rivers (17th, 1.24)
• Blocks - Trevon Bryant (2nd, 1.5 bpg), Gabe Bernard (T10th, 0.7 bpg), Shamont Brown (T13th, 0.5 bpg), Demetrius Love (T13th, 0.5 bpg)
• 3-Pt. FG% - Jonathan Toliver (4th, 48%)
• 3-Pt. FG Made - Jonathan Toliver (T4th, 2.50), Carlos Rivers (T12th, 1.8)
• Scoring - Shamont Brown (10th, 14.0 ppg), Carlos Rivers (19th, 12.5 ppg)
• Assists - Jonathan Toliver (T11th, 3.7 apg), Carlos Rivers (T14th, 3.5 apg)
• Rebounds - Shamont Brown (14th, 5.7 rpg), Jamaal Barnes (15th, 5.5 rpg).

...And as a Team:

• Blocked Shots - 1st (4.3 bpg)
• FG% Defense - 2nd (43%)
• Rebounding Margin - 3rd (+2.7)
• Assist/Turnover Ratio - 4th (1.14)
• Turnover Margin - 5th (+1.2)
• Scoring Defense - 5th (70.5 papg)
• Rebounding Offense - 5th (37.0 orpg)
• Rebounding Defense - 6th (34.3 drpg)
• Assists - 6th (16.3 apg)
• Scoring Margin - 6th, (+3.2 ppg)
• FG% - 7th (47%)
• Scoring Offense - 8th (73.7 ppg)
• Steals - T9th (6.3 spg)
• 3-Pt. FG% Defense - 9th (38%)
• 3-Pt. FG% - 10th (33%); FT% - 10th (62%).

The Bryant Watch: After destroying the CSUDH single-single mark with 52 blocked shots last season and needing just 44 to establish himself as the Toros’ all-time career blocked shot leader, senior Trevon Bryant has collected nine blocks in his first six games, bringing him to within 35 for the record. After tallying three blocks in his first three games, the 6’9” “Last Line” collected three blocks against Chico State on December 2, and then another three last Saturday against TMC to bring his season block average to 3.8 blocks per game, good for 2nd in the CCAA.

Last season, Bryant tallied his 38th block on February 24, against Cal State San Bernardino, surpassing the previous mark of 37 blocks set by former Toro great Anthony Blackman during the 1988-99 campaign.

Around the CCAA Conference: Here’s a look at the rest of the conference schedule for the rest of 2006:

• December 19 - Cal Poly Pomona vs. Western Washington, Cal State San Bernardino vs. Central Washington
• December 20 - Cal Poly Pomona vs. Central Washington, Cal State San Bernardino vs. Western Washington, Chico State @ Cal State Stanislaus, Humboldt State @ Sonoma State, December 21 - Cal State Bakersfield @ Cal State L.A.
• December 22 - Seattle University @ Chico State
• December 29 - Cal State Bakersfield @ Utah State
• December 30 - San Francisco State @ Cal State Monterey Bay, Sonoma State @ Humboldt State.

What the Coaches Said: In a preseason poll conducted by the CCAA coaches, Cal State Dominguez Hills was predicted to finish 7th in the highly-competitive conference. CCAA-newcomer Humboldt State, which was tabbed by Street & Smith as No. 6 in its preseason poll but fell in its first two CCAA contests two weekends ago, was given 9 first-place votes to top the conference list, and was followed by Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Bakersfield and Sonoma State, which received 1 first-place nod apiece.

Cal State San Bernardino and UC San Diego preceded the Toros in 5th and 6th, respectively, while Cal State Stanislaus, Chico State, Cal State L.A., San Francisco State and Cal State Monterey Bay rounded out the 12 CCAA schools.

The Time is Now: From the 2006-07 season preview: The 2006-07 Cal State Dominguez Hills men’s basketball team is ready. Ready with eight returning players on a team that improved by two wins in conference and four overall after welcoming 10 newcomers and a coach in just his second year with last season’s squad. Ready after winning its last two regular season games of the year. And ready after five of its losses on the year were by three points or less.

In 2005-06, juniors Carlos Rivers and Shamont Brown, who was named to the 2nd-team All-CCAA, led the Toro offense, averaging 13.4 and 12.0 points per game, respectively, while fellow junior transfer Trevon Bryant anchored a revamped defense that saw him establish the CSUDH record for blocks in a single-season with 52, with his 2.36 blocks per game average placing him 15th in the NCAA, giving head coach Damaine Powell (right) ample reason to smile as the season kicks off this week at the SPU Thanksgiving Classic.

“For the first time since I’ve been here, I know my personnel,” says Powell confidently. “We kind of got on a roll toward the end but by that time, the season was over. But we felt good about ourselves. Now, we’ve got some talent and experience, and we’re playing to that. We have the potential to have a breakthrough year.”