Dec. 21, 2007

Box Score

FULLERTON, CA - San Diego's Kiva Herman scored a game-high 16 points and the Toreros used a 13-0 second half run to break open a close game and help lift USD to a 74-43 victory over host Cal State Fullerton on Friday night at Titan Gym.

The loss was the seventh straight for the Titans as they fell to 1-8 overall on the season. San Diego won its third straight in improving to 7-4 overall.

Freshman Lauren Chow led Fullerton with a team-high 12 points to go with five steals in 30 minutes of play. Junior Toni Thomas narrowly extended her double-digit scoring streak to 30 consecutive games with a season-low 10 points on the night, but she was just 3-of-15 from the floor and needed two free throws with 7:10 remaining in the game to reach the mark.

Herman led a balanced scoring effort for the Toreros, who had every player but one score at least two points. She was joined in double figures by Amanda Rego, who posted a double-double with 11 points and 11 assists on the night, and Amber Sprague, who scored 10 points in 17 minutes.

Fullerton was held to just 23 percent shooting from the floor for the game and was held to just 9-of-19 from the free throw line after entering the week shooting better than 70 percent from the stripe.

San Diego, by contrast, shot just under 59 percent from the floor and outrebounded the Titans, 48-30.

The Toreros jumped out quickly to start the game, opening the half with a 9-1 run and holding Fullerton to without a field goal until Chow hit a three-pointer just over four minutes in.

The Titans trailed by as many as 15 in the first half thanks to a 12-2 run following Chow's three-pointer, but Fullerton clawed its way back into the contest, exploding for a 15-4 over the next eight minutes to close to within four points at 25-21 on Jasmine Scott's lay-up with just over four minutes remaining.

Five straight points by Rego and Thomas' first bucket of the game for the Titans closed out the half and USD went into the locker room ahead, 30-23, at the break.

The second half was more of the same as San Diego held Fullerton to without a field goal for almost six minutes and the Titans scored only three points in the first eight minutes as the Toreros pulled away.

USD led by as many as 33 points late in the second half and led by more than 20 for the final 11 minutes of the contest.

Fullerton opens a four-game road trip next weekend as the Titans head to the Bay Area for a pair of contests. Fullerton opens the trip on Saturday (Dec. 29) afternoon at 2 p.m. as the Titans take on Saint Mary's College in Moraga, Calif., and travels to Santa Clara two nights later for a New Year's Eve match-up with the Broncos on Monday evening at 5 p.m.