GAME NOTES: With the fanfare of an 800th career victory now out of the way, head coach Eddie Sutton and the rest of the San Francisco Dons can focus their attention on the rest of the West Coast Conference, beginning tonight with a stop at Loyola Marymount. On Saturday night, the Dons shook off a 19-point second-half deficit to topple Pepperdine by a score of 85-82. The win snapped a three-game slide for USF and was just the second for the team since the second week of December. Designated an interim head coach when he took over in late December, Sutton needed just two more wins on his resume' to reach 800, picking up the first against the University of Portland by a single point in the middle of January. Sutton, who began his coaching career with Creighton and is one of only two coaches to be named coach of the year in four different conferences, is the fifth Division I head coach to reach the 800-win milestone. On the other side are the Lions who are currently tied with Pepperdine and Portland for last place in the WCC standings with just one win in six tries. Overall the squad has a total of only four victories, suffering yet another setback on Saturday night with a 72-48 loss to San Diego at home. The loss was the fourth in a row and the 11th in 12 contests for a Lions squad that is trailing badly in the all-time series with the Dons by a count of 97-33.

A three-pointer by Danny Cavic late in regulation gave the Dons a rare lead over Pepperdine on Saturday night, with a pair of free throws by Christian Hernandez locking up the victory on the road in Malibu. Cavic finished with 23 points and a team-best nine rebounds, followed by Dior Lowhorn with 28 points and eight boards. Myron Strong contributed 13 points, while Manny Quezada countered his 1-of-5 shooting effort beyond the arc with 11 points, 12 assists and seven rebounds in the triumph. Lowhorn has at least held a share of the scoring lead in each of the last nine games for USF, which has led to his commanding 21.0 ppg. Also first on the unit with nearly seven and a half rebounds per contest, Lowhorn could certainly use some work on his ball handling, seeing as how he has just 18 assists over the course of 21 starts. Quezada adds 14.8 ppg and tries to take care of the passing responsibilities with his 93 helpers, while Strong muscles his way in for 11.5 ppg. However, after those three the scoring drops off considerably, leaving the program with just 66.3 ppg this season.

LMU posted just eight field goals in both the first and seconds halves on Saturday night, taking the Lions out of contention against a hyped San Diego program. The Lions finished the contest shooting just 35.6 percent from the field and 1-of-7 beyond the arc as they dealt with 18 turnovers. Tom Diederichs was the only player to score in double figures for the home team with his 10 points, while Jon Ziri came off the bench to clear 11 rebounds in a futile effort. Just a 59.8 percent shooter at the free-throw line this season, Orlando Johnson emerges as the lone double-digit scorer on the roster at the moment with his 12.5 ppg. Playing a shade under 26 minutes per game, Johnson also leads the group with 5.3 rpg and is among the leaders with 46 assists. However, the Lions are getting beaten on the glass by almost six rebounds per game and outscored by close to 17 ppg at the moment.

Now that the Dons have the monkey off their back of trying to secure Sutton's milestone victory, maybe they can get back to playing basketball just one game at a time and take out a team like the Lions.