SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco women's basketball team showed no slowing from the holiday break Saturday in, as it used numerous sprints throughout the afternoon to pull away from Southern California foe San Diego in a 68-57 West Coast Conference-opening win at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center.



HOW IT HAPPENED

• San Francisco (5-7, 1-0 WCC) won its second WCC opener in the past three years against the Toreros (7-5, 0-1 WCC), having faced them in consecutive conference openers since 2016-17. The Dons used four different multi-basket runs across all four quarters to pull away from USD, who itself had a poor shooting day (31.0 percent from the field, 14.3 [1 for 7] from 3-point range).
   
• USF went on a 7-2 sprint at the end of the first quarter to grab a 14-13 edge. Then it went on an 8-0 run early in the second to turn a three-point deficit into a five-point lead at 22-17 – and never trail again. Shannon Powell scored eight of her game-high 21 points inside those two runs alone. Kia Vaalavirta would give the Dons one last first-half boost with back-to-back 3-pointers late in the second quarter for a solo 6-0 run and a 30-21 lead at the break. The run extended into the start of the third, as it became an 11-0 stretch while USF expanded its lead to 35-21.
   
• But that's when San Diego woke up. The Toreros answered its largest deficit of the game to that point (14) by forcing five straight turnovers and going 4 for 6 from the floor, including back-to-back and-one plays by Myah Pace and Madison Pollock. That amounted to a 10-0 run for USD and cut the Dons' lead to just four.
   
• Then San Francisco answered USD's biggest run of the game with its own largest. After trading baskets for a few minutes and maintaining a 4-6 point lead, the Dons scored 14 consecutive points, running into the start of the fourth quarter and blowing a four-point game into an 18-point advantage in the final period at 55-37. When San Diego finally put an end to the run with a basket, Vaalavirta fired another dagger with her season-high-tying fourth trey of the day to make it a 19-point contest at 60-41.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 4 of 5: Powell has scored at least 21 points in four of her last five contests. That includes twice setting new career highs, first at Sacramento State on Dec. 5 with 25 against the Hornets, then again with 31 versus North Dakota on Dec. 21 in Florida. She has raised her points per game average by 4.5 during that span.
• 9: Lucija Kostic set a new season high with nine rebounds, including eight on the defensive end. She topped her previous season best of eight set in the season opener versus San Jose State on Nov. 9. She also had five assists, one short of her season high also set in that season opener versus the Spartans.
• 14.3%: San Diego shot just 14.3 percent (1 for 7) from 3-point range Saturday. San Francisco is 5-1 this season when holding opponents to under 30.0 percent from deep.
• 90: Powell has played every minute of the Dons' last two games. She played all 40 minutes Saturday versus the Toreros and she also played all 50 minutes in the Dons' double-overtime game versus North Dakota on Dec. 21.

COMING UP

• San Francisco hosts BYU on Monday, the last day of 2018, for a New Year's Eve afternoon affair. The Cougars were 54-44 winners over Santa Clara on Saturday in their WCC opener. Fans can purchase tickets and find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.