Toros Men Drop Intense Battle to No. 12 Coyotes, 77-60
January 20, 2007

Complete Box Score

Carson, CA -- Intense and frenetic summarized visiting Cal State San Bernardino’s 77-60 victory over Cal State Dominguez Hills Saturday night at the Torodome, a game that was much closer than the final score would indicate. With the loss, CSUDH’s 5th in its last 6 games, the Toros fall to 6-8, 3-6 CCAA, while the Coyotes remain atop the CCAA by improving to 11-3 and 7-2 in the conference.

The Toros came out strong against the Coyotes, taking a 9-2 lead on a Jonathan Toliver (Inglewood, CA/Westchester HS) trey just minutes into the game. CSUSB, however, would use an active full court press to its advantage, causing 15 first half CSUDH turnovers and taking their first lead of the night at 13-12 on an Ivan Johnson bucket with 9:20 left in the first half. Johnson, a senior transfer from the University of Oregon, muscled his way through the Toro defense to the tune of 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field, adding 2-of-3 free throws in the process.

The ‘Yotes, who suffered a shocking loss at UC San Diego last night, pushed their advantage to 32-17 on the second of Johnson’s free throw makes, only to have single free throws by Gabe Bernard (North Hills, CA/University of Texas at San Antonio) and Carlos Rivers (Long Beach, CA/LA Valley College) cut the lead to 13, and a Rivers heave from his own 3-point line that hit nothing but net give the Toros momentum entering the locker room, trailing 34-24.

After the break, CSUSB’s full-court press continued, generating another 13 turnovers after the intermission and causing the Toros to employ a four guard offense the majority of the second half. That line-up would pay dividends midway through the period as the Toros whittled CSUSB’s 16-point lead at 14:01 to 11 three minutes later on a Rivers no-look feed to Trevon Bryant (Tifton, GA/Compton CC) under the basket, resulting in a thunderous dunk. Jamel Ward (Los Angeles, CA/Inglewood HS) would make his presence felt off the bench after Bryant’s rim-rattler, connecting for two jumpers, the last basket trimming CSUSB’s lead to 50-45 with 10:13 left in regulation.

The Coyotes would rebuild their lead to 11 on a David Reichel trey three minutes later, only to have a Ward jumper at 2:50 bring CSUDH to within 65-60. That would be CSUDH’s last hurrah, however, as CSUSB would score the final 12 points of the game, including five via free throws.

Rivers came alive to lead the Toros with 19 points after being held to five total points in the last two games, while Bryant added 12 and Ward 10. Chet Johnson paced four Coyotes in double-figure scoring with his 15 pints, while Marlon Pierce’s 14, Johnson’s 13 and Prentice Harris’ 12 aided in the balanced CSUSB win.

The Toros continued their ups-and-downs at the free throw line by converting just 50% of their attempts (13-26), while CSUSB didn’t fare much better by shooting 64.9%, but did make 24-of-37 at the line. But turnovers were the big story as CSUSB tallied a 22-point advantage on points off turnovers, gaining 34 to CSUDH’s 12 in the 17-point win.

CSUDH takes to the road for five-consecutive games, playing at Cal State Monterey Bay and San Francisco State next weekend. The Toros returns home the weekend of February 9, when they host Humboldt State.