San Diego advances

Roberto Mafra had 14 points and 12 rebounds to help sixth-seeded San Diego knock off No. 7 Santa Clara 61-59 in the final first-round game at the West Coast Conference basketball tournament at the Orleans Arena  on Friday night.
Mafra also blocked seven shots in the victory and the team will move on to play No. 3 Portland in a second-round game tomorrow.
The senior said its just about extending his career at that point.
“Every game I play now, if I lose its my last game,” he said. “I just want to keep helping my teammates win so I can continue to play.”
San Diego head coach Bill Grier said he could tell Mafra was ready for a breakout performance at practice.
“I could tell he kind of had a look in his eye this week,” the third-year coach said. “He played well in this thing last year and he stepped up and really helped us out.”
Fellow senior Brandon Johnson had 11 points and four assists, while Chris Lewis added 12 points for the Toreros.
Robert Smith had 16 points to lead Santa Clara, which led by three at the half.
The Broncos built that lead largely as a result of forcing turnovers, but San Diego was able to eliminate mistakes in the second half.
“We had 11 in the first half and then just one in the second,” Grier said. “That was certainly a great adjustment that our guys made.”

The Game that wouldn’t end

Santa Clara trailed by just two points and got a good lock at the potential game-tying bucket in the closing seconds.
The shot hit the backboard and the inside of the rim, but go down and the ball slowly trickled out of bounds off a San Diego defender.
The buzzer sounded and San Diego and its fans began to celebrate, but the officials decided to look at the video to see if the whistle blew before time expired.
After a lengthy deliberation, they finally decided to put 0.1 seconds on the clock and give Santa Clara the ball for one last chance
After seeing the alignment, San Diego then took timeout to discuss a defensive strategy.
When the timeout was over, the officials again went to the video monitor and took another lengthy look.
This time, they decided to put 0.4 seconds on the clock, which is actually a huge difference.
A player can only catch and shoot when at least 0.3 seconds remain. Anything less and the attempt must be a tip.
After all that time, Santa Clara threw a lob to the basket anyway and San Diego’s Chris Lewis simply swatted the ball out of bounds to end the game.
San Diego coach Bill Grier said after the game he was told a new camera angle was found that showed the additional time should be added.
“My wisdom to take that timeout allowed them to find that angle,” he joked.
He probably wouldn’t have been joking had Santa Clara been able to find a way to score.

Up next

The women’s second round gets tomorrow’s action started, with surprising eighth-seeded Santa Clara taking on No. 4 Portland at noon.
The second game of the session features No. 6 Loyola Marymount and third-seeded Pepperdine.
The men once again hit the floor in the evening session.
No. 5 Loyola Marymount will play fourth-seeded San Francisco at 6 p.m., followed by No. 3 Portland against No. 6 San Diego.