SAN FRANCISCO — Facing up with Breanna Drollinger at mid-court, Dolapo Balogun sank into her hips and waited. Calmly, and without fouling, San Francisco's graduate transfer held tight to the prolific BYU wing, unnerving her enough that Drollinger lost the handle with 19 seconds to go, and the ball trickled out of bounds. It was just the type of play the Dons needed in a Senior Day win against the No. 3 team in the conference, the type of play Balogun has provided regularly this season.
 
The sixth woman on a team with, at times, only six healthy bodies, Balogun's toughness and maturity are the driving force behind San Francisco's late season surge. Her leadership is why, after winning three straight to end the regular season, the Dons could make some noise at the West Coast Conference Tournament this weekend in Las Vegas.
 
"With this momentum," Balogun said on Wednesday, "we're going to do some damage … Everybody's counted us out, so, I mean, we don't have anything to lose. So, let's go."
 
While fellow graduate transfer Mikayla Williams (second-team All-WCC) and double-double machine Leilah Vigil (honorable mention All-WCC) have received most of the plaudits this season, it's been Balogun's unselfish contribution that has formed the Dons' emotional foundation.
 
Having torn her ACL two years ago during a preseason workout as a junior at Southeast Missouri State, Balogun has had three surgeries, missed a year of basketball and wakes up and goes to bed every day with pain in her left knee. Head coach Molly Goodenbour figured that Balogun has been at 60% for most of the season.
 
Still, after starting 17 games in four years for the Redhawks, the 5-foot-10 forward has made 14 starts in 30 games with the Dons. She's averaged 23.4 minutes — the most by a non-starter — for a team that's lost three players to ACL injuries, one to a mysterious illness and another to ankle problems, a team that heads to Las Vegas with just eight healthy bodies.
 
"The way she's handled herself and the way she's managed herself on the court despite an injury that most people wouldn't be playing on or through, she's just really tough," Goodenbour said. "She does a lot of things that don't always show up in the stat line."
 
With her multiple surgeries and injections, Balogun been able to counsel the Dons' wounded, urging them to celebrate every milestone in their rehab and keeping spirits high for a 2020-2021 team for which she won't be playing. She's tutored Abby Rathbun on how to be a leader, lessons which nearly brought the sophomore to tears as she described their value after hitting a game-winning shot against BYU on Senior Day.
 
"[Balogun] wanted to make us better, to help us get better in our leadership and who we wanted to be" Rathbun said.
 
On the court, despite being a forward all her life, Balogun sees the floor like a point guard, plays diligent defense and communicates like a coach. She also rarely makes mistakes, which is why, despite never having shot a 3-pointer in high school or college before she got to San Francisco, she has the permanent green light from long distance.
 
"She just hasn't been in a situation where that's been something that she has been expected to do or that they've needed her to do," said Goodenbour, who has removed boundaries for her players in the midst of a trying season, enabling Vigil, Williams and Balogun to develop their outside games. "This year, we needed to do that — we needed to be able to hit an open three point shot when she's got it."
 
During a workout on her official visit to San Francisco, the Dons' staff stretched Balogun out to three. She didn't miss, and buried shot after shot from beyond the arc.
 
"When I came out here, Molly was like, 'You have a really nice shot. Like, if your feet are set and you catch the ball, just shoot it,'" Balogun said. "So that's kind of been the motto this year: Let it fly. I don't have anything to lose."
 
Always a quality mid-range shooter, Balogun had worked on her 3-point shot at the end of her final year at Southeast Missouri State with guard Carrie Shephard. "Your senior year," Shepard said, "you need to get buckets."
 
After connecting with the Dons staff on her visit and deciding to play one more year, Balogun has hit 25 of 78 attempts, giving San Francisco an outside threat despite the fact that it ranks ninth in the WCC in percentage of points coming from beyond the arc. Over the last four games, when she's been the lone bench contributor, Balogun has gone 5-of-11 from three.
 
That run started with a heartbreaking 61-58 loss to San Diego, a game in which the Toreros' Erica Martinson drilled the game-winning 3-pointer with just 2.5 seconds left. It was the third loss in a row for the Dons (12-18, 5-13 in WCC), who started the conference schedule 0-9. From there, San Francisco beat the Cougars — in part thanks to a pair of Balogun triples — then took two straight on the road.
 
The Dons escaped Pacific with a 67-61 win and blasted St. Mary's 69-55 in a game where Balogun hit one of the two 3-pointers she attempted, and pulled down four rebounds while committing just one foul in 24 minutes off the bench.
 
"There's been a shift, starting with the San Diego game," Balogun said. "We let that one get away from us, but starting from there, it was like we were a brand new team."
 
San Francisco has matched its longest conference winning streak in the last three seasons, and with an opening-round win over Santa Clara (11-18, 5-13) on Thursday at noon, the Dons would have a chance to match their five-game streak from the end of the 2016-17 campaign.
 
That San Francisco team — Goodenbour's first — was healthier (and therefore deeper) than her current bunch, but after a season of adjusting to new roles, the Dons have settled into a cohesive unit.
 
The Broncos are tough, though, having beaten San Francisco 80-72 at War Memorial Gym in the first game of the new year. The Dons returned the favor on the road with a 72-66 win on Feb. 1, a game in which Balogun hit two 3-pointers in 25 minutes.
 
"I think we're pretty evenly matched," Goodenbour said. "I don't think one of us has a huge advantage in any area over the other team. They have better guard play and more perimeter shooters, and we have the six of us that we have."
 
Late last month on her blog, the day before Senior Day, Balogun wrote a confession evocative of childhood hero Kobe Bryant's "Dear Basketball."
 
"Mentally and emotionally, my heart still belongs to the game; a game that I'm so indebted to," she wrote. "But physically, I know that I cannot handle the rigors anymore. And that is okay."
Balogun will remain around the team next year developing USF's sports nutrition program, but for now, every game she gets to play — even as the sixth woman — is a gift. As much as it hurts, she wants to make her final season last.
 
"It really meant a lot for me this year to give this team literally everything that I've got," Balogun said. "How we're on a roll right now, it just seems like everything's just paying off and nothing was in vain."