The West Coast Tournament on Friday and we will see the San Diego Toreros take on the BYU Cougars in Las Vegas, Nevada. The game is scheduled for an 11:30 pm (Eastern) start time and will be televised on ESPN U. Currently the Odds for the game have BYU favored by 10 points while the total sits at 139.5.
Analysis: Dave Rose's Cougars lost a couple of tough games to Saint Mary's and Gonzaga before it ended its regular season with a 73-70 road win at Loyola Marymount. The WCC's leading scorer, Tyler Haws. poured in 24 points to help BYU slide past LMU. Haws nets 20.9 ppg and has pulled down six boards in each of his last three appearances. Haws hit 14-of-14 from the free-throw line at LMU on March 2, his fourth game this season shooting 100 percent from the line, while attempting at least 10 free throws, a BYU single-season record. In addition to Haws's scoring presence from the perimeter, Brandon Davies (17.5 ppg, 7.8 rpg) muscles his way into the paint for the Cougars. Matt Carlino does a decent job of running the show and deals out 4.4 assists per tilt. BYU is ranked 19th in the nation in scoring offense (76.7 ppg) and 21st in assists (15.7).
San Diego took down Pepperdine, 62-59, on Thursday in the second round to create this matchup. Johnny Dee scored 16 points to lead the way while Chris Anderson added 10 points and Chris Manresa had 11 boards and was a point shy of a double-double. During the regular season, the Toreros defeated BYU at home and nearly upset Gonzaga. USD boasts the third- ranked scoring defense in the WCC, holding foes to 66.5 ppg, but it doesn't have a scoring offense (65.0 ppg) capable enough of supporting it. Dee sneaks into the conference's top-10 in scoring with 14.6 ppg by draining 66 3- pointers at 37.6 percent clip. Rancifer nets 10.3 ppg, and Anderson (9.1 ppg) is among the league leaders in both assists (5.6 apg) and steals (2.1 spg).
BYU dominated the Toreros in the first meeting of the season last month, claiming a 74-57 victory at the Marriott Center in Provo. San Diego avenged its loss on Feb. 7 as it took down the Cougars, 74-68, at home.
Pick: Going to go with the Under in this one. The Only shot that San Dieg has is if they slow the pace down and also use that tough defense as well. The Toreros have allowed 66.6 ppg on the year and when away from home they have allowed just 65.8 ppg. BYU does allow 71.7 ppg away from home, but San Diego has trouble scoring away from home, having averaged just 55.8 ppg in those games. Should be a pretty slow paced game, with about 130 points being scored.
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