Pilots @ UOP

Anyone watch or listen to the game? (I was unable to) Reading the box score, after a 32 all halftime score, the Pilots made a run early in the 2nd half, and had several double digits leads, up 70-57 with 5:20 to go. Looks like the Pilots got stuck on 73 for a couple minutes, and the Tigers closed it to 3 points with 19 seconds left, 75-72. Pilots made a couple free throws to go up by 5. After a UOP score, one UP FT and another UOP score, it was 78-76 with 7 seconds to go. They fouled Jazz, and he made two FTs to close out the scoring. Whew!

Also, I am confused. Hartwich started, but only played 9 minutes. Looks like he got zero points and 3 fouls in that time. But Barreno reappeared from the end of the bench, played 25 minute, shot 5 for 6, scored 12 points, got 9 rebounds and 2 blocks. Where did that come from?? And why did Andre Ferguson play 4 minutes, including crunch time where he was at the FT line with 10 seconds to go and the game on the line (he made 1 of 2)? Neither Alec nor Jazz had foul trouble. The only other bench player was Maker, who got 14 minutes and no points. Those results are nothing like what we saw the last two weeks.

Alec led scoring with 26, Jazz had 17, Gabe had 13 and D'Marques had 11 (3 of 8 from 3Pt). OVerall, the team shot 47.5%, and only 36.4% from 3Pt. And only 64% from the foul line (16 of 25). Good think they had 25 foul shots, UOP only got 11 FTs and made 10.

Phil got in some early foul trouble and missed FT's, so Barreno was (surprisingly?) subbed in and played well... he rebounded and made some nice shots... lets hope he can continue to contribute, as it helped give a bit of space to Jazz and Alec.

Ferguson got minutes late in the offense-for-defense subs. I was glad to see him get some minutes as well, and he had a key play in breaking the full court pressure applied by UoP, breaking away to run several seconds off the clock and get fouled in the final minute.

Coach Porter must had read DD's post earlier about not getting court time for players down the bench... the bench is going to need to keep supporting the starting 5 as the grind wears on.

The Pilots made enough FTs and shots in the closing minutes to hold on... I'll take it for a conference road win!

PilotNut wrote:Coach Porter must had read DD's post earlier about not getting court time for players down the bench... the bench is going to need to keep supporting the starting 5 as the grind wears on.

Well, Barreno and Ferguson got in after not playing for several games, but Jackson and Smoyer never played, after having some good moments in recent games.

Someone will have to ask Coach Knutson what he did to get a critical good performance from Ray.

up7587 wrote:Anyone watch or listen to the game?

Caught all of this one.

I scratched my head a bit when Barreno came on for Hartwich in the first half instead of Smoyer, then Ray promptly went into beast mode. Best sequence was likely when he outworked two Pacific players for an offensive board, missed the putback (his only miss of the night) but beat the same players for another board, then finished it off. His best game as a Pilot.

Stat of the night - only two turnovers as a team. One was when Hartwich literally gave the ball right to a Pacific player for a fast break dunk.

Nice win - was looking a bit Fullertonish for my liking in the late going, but Jazz's two huge late FTs put it away.

I watched the game, too, and agree with all of Dean Murdoch's comments. The archived broadcast is here: https://livestream.com/pacific/events/6680992

Where did Barreno come from? Is Terry Porter a mad genius? Ray hadn't played a single minute for 5 straight games. As Dean says, this was his best game in a Pilots uniform. Unreal. Before this game, Barreno had made 4 field goals this season (all coming against Lewis and Clark on November 18). Tonight he made 5. His 25 minutes played are a career high.

I am concerned about a third straight game in which we've given up a big lead in the last four minutes. Too reminiscent of a Reveno team for my liking. But a win is a win, especially in conference, and especially on the road. And cheers to the Pilots for FINALLY getting their first win at the Spanos Center since Pacific re-joined the league. We've given away some games we should have won there over the past few years.

A big salute to Wintering and Johnson for playing turnover-free ball. We couldn't afford any wasted possessions in this one.

From the play-by-play rundown on UP's website, Ferguson played 3+ minutes in the first half, giving Wintering and then Johnson a quick breather. He then came back in the closing seconds of the game as a third ball-handler to help us make the inbounds play and break the full-court press. I hope Porter can use that same approach to get the starting guards a few minutes rest in each half.

NoPoNeighbor wrote: And cheers to the Pilots for FINALLY getting their first win at the Spanos Center since Pacific re-joined the league. We've given away some games we should have won there over the past few years.

Amen to that!  I attended each of those game, including last night's, and it's nice to see the monkey gone...(I didn't do a fact check, but a long time UOP supporter told me the Pilots were 3-20 in Stockton over the years.)

No need to add anything to what Deaner and NPN have written, except to say that Coach Porter's game plan (or adjustment) resulted in a slower, more deliberate pace of play....which IMO led to few turnovers and less strain on the players on the court.  All the players, including Ray and his record number of minutes, were less leg-weary than in the past.

Agree that too many teams are catching the Pilots late (6 times by my count)....so it's an area that needs work, but was great to see Andre in for the last 19 seconds or so to help bring the ball down the court.  JoJo is the heir-apparent to Alec's job, but Andre is a very skilled and confident player who just needs more minutes.

UOP has some excellent players (sophomore Anthony Townes!!)....this was a good UP win.  I think if you were to ask the UOP staff why UP won, they'd probably say they just couldn't stop Alec, even though they keyed on him and often double-teamed him.

DoubleDipper wrote:I think if you were to ask the UOP staff why UP won, they'd probably say they just couldn't stop Alec, even though they keyed on him and often double-teamed him.

Turns out someone (a reporter!) did ask Coach Stoudamire that very question, and his answer was just as DD surmised:

Bob Highfill, Stockton Record wrote:Driving, twisting, turning and maneuvering his way through Pacific's defense, Wintering scored a game-high 26 points in the Pilots' 80-76 win in front of 1,622 Thursday at Spanos Center.

"He killed us. He killed us," said Tigers coach Damon Stoudamire, who knows great guard play when he sees it, being a former All-American at Arizona and 14-year NBA player. "We couldn't stop him all night. We never could get a beat on him. We couldn't keep him in front of us. He dictated the whole game for them."

Good game article in the Stockton Record. If only we got this kind of regular coverage from the Oregonian...

I understand the Stockton Record is a local paper...