After a brief stop at Del Mar and Ballast Point, we drove to the campus of the University of San Diego, where the Toreros were hosting the Terriers. There is a parking structure right by the Jenny Craig Pavilion where it's a $1.25 per half hour between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., which happened to be tip time. We arrived about 6:25 and waited five minutes to save a buck and a quarter.
We walked up a short hill to the front of the venue, which is named for the woman who founded the eponymous weight loss company and is consequently nicknamed the Slim Gym. At the box office, we were charged the $5 senior price without even asking, a rather distressing development.
The building was constructed in the Spanish Renaissance style that is prevalent across the campus. Inside the entrance is an attractive lobby with an overpriced concession stand that will help keep patrons slim.
Next to the lobby is a small hallway that includes the Hall of Fame (John Wathan on the top right is a member who brought back memories of the 1985 ALCS), while several trophies from the school's success in D-II are in a display case.
Inside the seating bowl, a large concourse encircles the entire seating bowl. The baseline seats do not go down to the floor as you can see below, which means those first row seats there are good places to sit if you like looking down at the basket.
In fact, our assigned seats were in the first row right at the corner, which gave us a somewhat different view than I am used to and we spent the first half here before moving to a sideline seat for the second half.
There is a large inflatable chair that looks like a good photo op, but the little step at the bottom is not solid, so a tumble is just as likely for us seniors.
The venue opened in 2000 and has a capacity of 5,100, which would not be tested on this night, with just 731 in attendance. The sky blue court goes very nicely with the dark blue seats.
The center hung scoreboard is new for this season and is in addition to two other videoboards at either end.
The school has not had much success in the postseason, hurt by the fact that they are in a conference with perennial contenders Gonzaga and Saint Mary's. Their only tournament win came in 2008 when they upset #4 UConn before losing to Western Kentucky.
Two years ago, women's volleyball made the national semifinals where they lost to eventual champion Texas and this accomplishment gets a banner all its own.
The Game
The Boston Terriers were in town as part of a west coast trip that will also see them take on UCLA. This was the first meeting between the Toreros and Terriers, which is one of the longest distance college matchups within the continental US (Seattle-Miami is about 150 miles longer as the crow flies).
Both teams have Canadians on their roster: David Simon (#4 below) is a 6'11 Ethiopian-born sophomore from Windsor who was the Canadian High School Player of the Year in 2022 before committing to San Diego, while Boston boasts Matai Baptiste (#0 below), a 6'7 sophomore from Toronto.
The first half saw San Diego's Kjay Bradley Jr. on fire as he scored 14 straight, though Boston kept pace and tied the score at 17 with a Miles Brewster trey. But the Toreros responded with two quick threes and they maintained an advantage for the rest of the half, with Simon contributing a late 3 as San Diego led 34-30 at the break.
Brewster scored the first basket of the second half to bring the Terriers within a pair, but San Diego then went on a 15-0 run highlighted by 8 more points from Bradley Jr. and another bomb from Simon. After Simon was fouled on a dunk and completed the three-point play, the lead was 18 and Boston never got closer than 12, falling 74-60.
Bradley Jr led all scorers with 28 points while Simon had 14, including a trio of treys. Ben Palacios' 15 points paced Boston, whose 34.4 shooting percentage was the main reason they lost.
Notes
On Monday I saw USD win by 14 points, on Friday I saw USD win by 14 points. I also used a lot of USD to travel between the two.
Best,
Sean
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