{"id":445665,"date":"2025-12-14T03:37:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T03:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/445665\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T03:37:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T03:37:18","slug":"toreros-back-in-the-winners-circle-top-nau-78-69","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/445665\/","title":{"rendered":"Toreros &#8220;Back in the Winner&#8217;s Circle&#8221;, Top NAU 78-69"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>                    &#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\tStory Links&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<ul class=\"sidearm-story-template-links-list\">&#13;<br \/>\n            &#13;<\/p>\n<li>&#13;<br \/>\n                    <a href=\"https:\/\/usdtoreros.com\/documents\/2025\/12\/13\/USD78NAU69GameBook.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Game Book<\/a> &#13;\n                <\/li>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n            &#13;<\/p>\n<li>&#13;<br \/>\n                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=umZ1LBmeEE0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Post-Game Interviews<\/a> &#13;\n                <\/li>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n            &#13;\n        <\/ul>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n   &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/UC-San-Diego.png\" alt=\"UC San Diego\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                Next Game:<\/p>\n<p>at UC San Diego<\/p>\n<p>12\/19\/2025 | 7 PM<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n                        ESPN+  &#13;\n                    <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n                    Dec. 19 (Fri) \/ 7 PM&#13;\n                <\/p>\n<p>                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sidearm-story-template-next-game-opponent-logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/UC-San-Diego.png\" alt=\"UC San Diego\"\/><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n                        at\u00a0UC San Diego&#13;\n                    <\/p>\n<p>                    <a class=\"sidearm-story-template-next-game-details-history\" href=\"https:\/\/usdtoreros.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/opponent-history\/uc-san-diego\/127\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">History <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                             &#13;<\/p>\n<p>                    <strong>SAN DIEGO \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>USD men&#8217;s basketball bounced back with a home win Saturday evening, 78-69 over Northern Arizona inside the Jenny Craig Pavilion.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nImproved shooting was the difference for the Toreros, who collect their fourth win of the season, first of December. San Diego went 10-23 (43.3%) from beyond the arc, an overall 50% from the field in a game in which it led for all but four minutes.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nJunior guard <a href=\"https:\/\/usdtoreros.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/ty-laur-johnson\/12916\" rel=\"smarttag noopener\" rev=\"12916\" target=\"_blank\">Ty-Laur Johnson<\/a> led the way for the hosts with a USD season-high 23 points on six made field goals, drawing 10 fouls and going 10-12 from the free throw line, adding four assists without any turnovers as he found success getting to the rim.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nGrad guards <a href=\"https:\/\/usdtoreros.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/toneari-lane\/12918\" rel=\"smarttag noopener\" rev=\"12918\" target=\"_blank\">Toneari Lane<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/usdtoreros.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/adrian-mcintyre\/12917\" rel=\"smarttag noopener\" rev=\"12917\" target=\"_blank\">Adrian McIntyre<\/a> were crucial off the bench as the latter posted 10 points, a major part in a game-icing run, and Lane took all of his shots from behind the arc, at a 5-for-9 clip to finish with 15 points for a third time this season.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n<strong>How it Happened <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>Head Coach <a href=\"https:\/\/usdtoreros.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/coaches\/steve-lavin\/5941\" rel=\"smarttag noopener\" rev=\"5941\" target=\"_blank\">Steve Lavin<\/a> made one change to his starting lineup from Tuesday&#8217;s defeat to USC, plugging in junior forward <a href=\"https:\/\/usdtoreros.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/vuk-boskovic\/13060\" rel=\"smarttag noopener\" rev=\"13060\" target=\"_blank\">Vuk Boskovic<\/a><\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>A slow shooting start for both sides was refreshed by the first subs off the bench<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>USD then went on to make four straight attempted threes as the nation&#8217;s 12th-ranked team in free throw percentage got into the bonus early<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>That factored into the launching of a 10-0, 15-3 run for the Toreros to lead by as much as 13<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>Freshman guard <a href=\"https:\/\/usdtoreros.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/brandon-benjamin\/12911\" rel=\"smarttag noopener\" rev=\"12911\" target=\"_blank\">Brandon Benjamin<\/a> made an impact off the bench, posting seven points in just over six minutes<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>San Diego held NAU scoreless from the field for the last 4:16 of the first half, seeing the Toreros hold a 40-29 at the break<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>The Lumberjacks stayed in the game and even cut the lead down to one in the early stages of the second period following empty USD possessions<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>The mostly back-and-forth second half was put to an end by a quick 9-0 Torero run led by Johnson and McIntyre to put the hosts back up by 12 with a minute remaining<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>San Diego held out for the 78-69 victory at the final buzzer<\/li>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>\n<strong>Notable<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>USD improves to 8-0 all-time over Northern Arizona when playing on their home floor, an overall fifth straight win for a 12-8 series record<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>The Toreros have scored exactly 78 points in three of its four wins on the season<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>It was San Diego&#8217;s first time shooting over 40% (43.3%) from deep since its Nov. 12 victory over Idaho<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>USD has forced 17-plus turnovers out of its opponents in each of the last three games in December: 17 vs. NAU (Dec. 13), 21 vs. USC (Dec. 9) and 22 at\u00a0San Jose State (Dec. 5)<\/li>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>\n<strong>Up Next<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Toreros have six days of prep ahead of them before taking on cross-town rival UC San Diego in a Quad-1 opportunity inside the Tritons&#8217; LionTree Arena on Friday, Dec. 19 at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; Story Links&#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; Game Book &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; Post-Game Interviews&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":445666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-445665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-sandiego","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115715836866854172","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}