GAME NOTES: Trying to keep pace with the elite teams in the West Coast Conference, the San Diego Toreros take their four-game win streak on the road tonight to challenge the Pepperdine Waves in Malibu. On Saturday night, the Toreros dismissed Loyola Marymount rather easily by a score of 72-48, just days after knocking off nationally-ranked Saint Mary's-CA. Now 5-1 in conference play, San Diego is tied for second place in the league standings and trails only Gonzaga which is a perfect 6-0 at the moment. As for the Waves, they were a part of history two nights ago when they tumbled against San Francisco at home, 85-82. Not only did Pepperdine surrender a 19-point lead in the contest, it also allowed USF head coach Eddie Sutton to finally log the 800th win of his illustrious career. The defeat was the fifth in six games for the Waves, who are being washed under with a conference record of only 1-5. While San Diego may have posted a 95-82 win in the most recent installment of this series, it is the Waves who hold the overall lead heading into this meeting with a 52-27 mark.

Rob Jones not only scored a career-high 27 points on Saturday night, he also manned the middle and came away with 13 rebounds as the Toreros tore apart Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles. Gyno Pomare made good on all seven of his field goal attempts to come up with 14 points in just 18 minutes of action. The team shot 50 percent from the field to help cover up for deficiencies at the foul line (2-of-5) and beyond the arc (4-of-18). Although he failed to score in double figures in the last game, Brandon Johnson remains the top scorer for the Toreros with 17.1 ppg, but it has to be comforting for the team to know that even when he has an off night, Jones and Pomare are there to pick up the slack. Pomare accounts for 14.5 ppg and is first on the glass with almost seven and a half rebounds per game, followed by Jones (7.9 ppg) with his 5.4 rpg for a team that is desperate to get beyond a meager 63.7 ppg this season.

The Waves employed a total of just seven players on Saturday night, with every one of them scoring in double figures, yet even that effort was not enough to keep USF from providing its head coach with win 800. Tyrone Shelley was responsible for 16 points and seven rebounds, Ryan Holmes and Malcolm Thomas had 12 points apiece, Jon Reed and Mychel Thompson tallied 11 each and Mike Hornbuckle and Rico Tucker chipped in 10 points apiece in the setback. Thompson added team highs of nine rebounds and five assists as well, but he shot just 2- of-7 behind the three-point line on the night. Shelley leads the team in scoring at the moment with his 15.5 ppg and has had a tendency to put up slightly stronger numbers against the rest of the WCC with 16.3 ppg. Thomas checks in with 13.6 ppg overall, but in his case he has dropped to 11.8 ppg versus the rest of the league. All opponents seem to be thriving against Pepperdine here in 2007-08, scoring 82.5 ppg on the strength of 48 percent shooting from the field, which includes a 41.1 percent mark from beyond the arc.

Using such a short bench in a game that it could have won on Saturday night must have been difficult for the Waves. Unfortunately, they won't have it as easy tonight because the Toreros have their sights set on the top spot in the WCC standings and Pepperdine is simply standing in the way of that pursuit.