Toreros captain Isaiah Wright picked a great night to light up the scoreboard.
The redshirt junior scored a career-high 30 points against the Portland Pilots Thursday to help the University of San Diego escape the Rose City with an 81-74 victory.
A transfer from Utah two years ago, Wright converted his first nine free throw attempts and finished 12-of-15 from the charity stripe. He also went 7-for-12 from the field and 4-for-6 from downtown.
One of Wright’s two assists came on an alley-oop to swingman Juwan Gray.
The sophomore from Delaware rattled the rim with a reverse slam in the first half to give the Toreros an early 13-9 advantage.
A driving layup by Wright with just over two minutes to play in regulation gave USD a nine point cushion which appeared to put the game out of reach.
But Portland piloted its way back into the contest by fouling and converting while the Toreros struggled to hit their freebies.
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Pilots sophomore Josh McSwiggan drained a game-tying three with 13 seconds left in the second half to force overtime and Wright fouled out of the game.
But USD junior guard Olin Carter III hit a key trey in overtime to help USD gain control and the Toreros were able to fend off Portland the rest of the way.
Carter finished with 16 points and fellow junior Tyler Williams chipped in with 10 points.
USD improved to 12-3 overall and 3-0 in conference play.
There has been a clear separation in the WCC standings as Gonzaga, St. Mary’s, BYU and the Toreros are the only four schools with double digit victories at this point in the season
The entire quartet is at the top of the league standings as well with either 3-0 or 2-1 WCC records.
