Toreros rally from 17 down to beat Pilots in overtime

It had been nearly three years since USD won back-to-back West Coast Conference games, 1,083 days to be exact. But after upsetting Pepperdine on Monday, the Toreros had a chance to fix that issue Thursday night against the WCC’s usual cellar dweller, Portland.

“That’s the first thing we talked about on Tuesday morning,” head coach Sam Scholl said less than an hour before tip-off. “This has to change if we’re going to be the type of team we think we can be.”

Considering the Pilots were 1-42 in the WCC the last three years, USD seemingly had the perfect foil at Jenny Craig Pavilion. But these aren’t former head coach Terry Porter’s Pilots. USD fell behind by 17 points in the first half before rallying for a 68-63 victory in overtime.

Asked his thoughts when his team was down 17 just 10:35 into the game, Scholl said, “We’ve got to refocus. We’ve got come with it.”

The win was as much a sigh of relief as celebration and would have been a stunning loss for USD (9-7, 2-1). Portland (9-7, 0-1) came in a 6½-point underdog and because of COVID cancellations hadn’t played in 22 days.

By halftime, USD cut the deficit to 37-30.

As comebacks usually are, this one was fueled by defense, and by a former Coronado High star, freshman Wayne McKinney III.

In one second-half stretch, the Toreros limited Portland to one basket in 14 possessions.

McKinney opened the second half by draining a 3 from the corner. The next trip down the floor he hit another 3 from the wing. Later, he drove hard to the basket on a break, made the bucket, was fouled and converted the three-point play.

After not scoring in the first half, he finished with 14.

“Wayne played a helluva game,” said teammate Josh Parrish. “He’s growing game by game. His work is paying off and showing off.”

St. John’s transfer Marcellus Earlington led USD with 21 points. Yavuz Gultekin scored 12. Earlington and Gultekin each had 10 rebounds.

USD led by as many as six in the second half only for the Pilots to come back and force OT with regulation ending at 60-all.

Gultekin hit two free throws with 24.2 seconds to play, giving USD a 66-63 lead. Portland missed two 3s before McKinney iced the game with a pair of free throws with 1.4 seconds to play.

“We told them this is a whole new Portland,” said Scholl. “We told them any notion or thought of (the old) Portland they had to wipe clear of their mind.”

Mike Meadows scored 16 to lead Portland, all in the first half. He was 0 for 5 in the second half and OT.

McKinney came in averaging 5.2 points and was shooting just 28 percent on 3s.

’“To contribute, it feels amazing,” said McKinney. “I feel blessed. I had my teammates behind me. They knew what I could do. They stayed confident in me and told me to keep being myself. I stayed the course and my shots came when we were spacing the floor. I got ’em up and they went in.”

Scholl said the comeback win can fuel the team’s confidence.

“In a lot of situations, this group has shown a lot of great mental discipline,” Scholl said. “They do the next right thing and don’t panic. I’m certainly proud of them for that.”

Norcross is a freelance writer.