LAS VEGAS — San Diego will take on the women Cougars Saturday following a win over Portland Friday 70-60.
San Diego finished the season with a 12-4 WCC record, tying them for second place in the league. In the tournament, San Diego is seeded third, while BYU is the second seed, a ranking that earned the team a weekend start.
San Diego will get a double dose of BYU, with the BYU men playing the Toreros men Friday night.
San Diego is led by senior guard Dominique Conners, who had 25 of the team total of 70 points against Portland.
“We had a sense of urgency to really win this one,” Conners said after the game.
Conners is an important cog in the Toreros offense, leading the team in scoring with an average of 18.4 points per game. Conners is 22 points shy of USD’s all-time scoring record with a career total of 1,691 points.
Another key player for San Diego was sophomore guard, Amy Kame. In the game against Portland, Kame was asked to defend Natalie Day, the leading scorer for the Pilots. Day was held to 17 points, on a 5-14 shooting night. In addition to her four steals and physical defense, Kame was the second leading scorer with 24 points.
“It’s really important for us to play good fundamental defense,” Kame said, in response to a question about the upcoming game against BYU.
The San Diego fans had the biggest stadium presence that the tournament has seen so far with loud cheering, poster board cutouts of the player’s heads, painted bodies and blue wigs in support of their team.
However, BYU fans began filling the Orleans arena Friday night waiting for the BYU men to face San Diego. The BYU women’s team will play the San Diego Saturday at 3 p.m. MST. The game will be broadcast on BYUtv.
