March 9, 2008

Final Stats

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Complete USF/Santa Clara Quotes in PDF Format

SAN DIEGO -USF's run in the 2008 West Coast Conference Tournament ended against a familiar opponent playing a familiar role as Santa Clara squeaked out a 51-50 quarterfinals victory Saturday night at the Jenny Craig Pavilion. John Bryant took advantage of a phantom foul call with three seconds remaining in regulation and the Dons up by one point, 50-49. The Broncos center sank both and USF's desperation heave fell short.

Vince Polakovic scored 17 points to lead San Francisco (10-21), which shot poorly in the first half (10-of-30) and even worse after the break (5-of-18). But the Dons forced 19 turnovers that they turned into 20 points to keep it close.

"I thought the first half we played very well at both ends of the floor," USF interim head coach Eddie Sutton said. "The second half I thought offensively we just broke away from our offense and yet we still hung in the game because our defense overall was good. We had gotten hurt big time in the other (Santa Clara) games by their three-point shooting and I thought we did a great job of taking that away from them."

Lowhorn finished with 10 points and completed his outstanding sophomore campaign with 636 points, good for fourth place on the Dons single-season list. The Texas Tech transfer passed USF All-Americans Ollie Johnson (627 - 1964-65) and Winford Boynes (628 - 1977-78) against the Broncos.

Bryant added 17 rebounds and seven blocks for the fourth-seeded Broncos (15-15), who will take on top-seeded Gonzaga in the semifinals. Mitch Henke added 10 points for Santa Clara.

Santa Clara trailed 31-24 at halftime, but rallied against the fifth-seeded Dons.

Santa Clara led 49-48 with 20 seconds left when Dean Hadley was fouled. He made both free throws to put San Francisco ahead, but Hyman Taylor fouled Bryant with three seconds left, setting up the winning free throws.

Manny Quezada scored nine points with five rebounds and five assists for the Dons, while Myron Strong added eight points and a pair of assists. Taylor ripped down a team-high nine rebounds with two blocks in 28 minutes.

Sutton completes his run with the Dons with a 6-13 record after taking over the reigns in late December and reached 804 career victories with a 79-60 victory against Loyola Marymount in the opening round of the WCC Tournament.

"The guys worked hard and they got to better understand me and understand what we were trying to do," Sutton said. "It's gone quickly. The people at the University of San Francisco have treated me in a very classy way and I've certainly enjoyed working with the young men that I've had the privilege to coach."