The San Francisco Dons improved to 4-1 on the season Saturday evening as they held off the Seattle University Redhawks 69-63 at Key Arena in Seattle. The Dons are on their way to Alaska for next week's Great Alaska Shootout, but made a pit stop in Seattle for their first road contest of the season. Michael Williams led the Dons with 18 points and Angelo Caloiaro and Perris Blackwell contributed twelve apiece.
USF once again had to deal with numerous turnover issues as they gave up the ball 18 times. Turnovers cost them their opener against North Dakota State and will be an even bigger issue if they don't clean up their play when West Coast Conference play begins in late December. For now though, the Dons have bought some time to figure out what they need to do to improve in taking care of the ball.
Seattle hung close late in the first half, cutting a nine point Dons lead to a single point at half time. USF came out of the locker room up 28-27 and exchanged leads with the Redhawks through the first eight minutes. Third-year sophomore Dominique O'Connor provided a jolt off the bench to give the Dons a lead with 12:08 that they would not surrender. O'Connor scored ten points in the first eight minutes of the half to give the Dons their eventual winning lead. Seattle cut the lead to one in the closing seconds, but the Dons made key free throws throughout the closing minutes of the game and held on for victory.
USF will now head off to Alaska for the Carr's Great Alaska Shootout. USF opens the tournament on Wednesday November 23 against Dartmouth. They will then advance to face the winner/loser of Murray State/Alaska-Anchorage on Friday pending their own result.