Pilots @ USD, Thursday, 8pm

Woodless! wrote:Make your free throws LMU!

up7587 wrote:

I think we are pretty much locked into the 5th seed now, unless we beat SMC and SCU loses to Pepperdine.

Purplegeezer wrote:

up7587 wrote:

I think we are pretty much locked into the 5th seed now, unless we beat SMC and SCU loses to Pepperdine.

Gonzaga would have to lose, too

Portland 65, San Diego 61: Seniors rally the Pilots for 20th victory
Published: Thursday, February 24, 2011, 10:55 PM Updated: Friday, February 25, 2011, 5:31 AM
Special to The Oregonian By Special to The Oregonian

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego is no Kentucky, and yet the Portland Pilots managed the same first-half output Thursday night -- 24 -- as they did
on Nov. 19 in the 31-point loss at the Rose Garden to the powerful
Wildcats.

Luckily for Portland, their halftime deficit against San Diego was not 14 but only five, a manageable mark on a night when they seemingly couldn't have thrown it into the nearby Pacific Ocean in the first 20 minutes (29.2 percent)

Portland regrouped at halftime, shot a red-hot 51.7 percent in the second
half, and rallied for a 65-61 West Coast Conference victory over the Toreros (6-22, 2-10), who have played better of late but still owned a 2-10
conference mark coming entering Thursday's action.

Two seniors led the way for Portland. Jared Stohl scored a game-high
18 points, 14 in the second half, and Luke Sikma had all eight of his points in the second half and added 10 rebounds for the Pilots.

"Jared made some plays and got out on the break," said Pilots coach Eric
Reveno. "Sikma had no points at halftime; we knew that wouldn't last."

For a team that still had plenty to play for in terms of conference
tournament seeding, the Pilots (20-9, 7-6) played the first half like
the basket was the size of a bowl, and the ball was a boulder.

Then the second half started like this: Sikma jump hook from 6 feet, Tim
Douglas driving layup, Stohl three-pointer from the top of the key, followed by a Toreros timeout. Douglas hit a three-pointer, and just like that it was
34-29 Portland. The first-half woes were forgotten, at least until the film
session.

Things were going so well that Tanner Riley had a breakaway, for some reason didn't shoot as he went underneath the basket, then passed out to Stohl, who hit a three-pointer.

"That must be a freshman thing," Sikma said of Riley's play. "But Jared got
some great steals, some wide-open shots. When he gets going, he's hard to stop."

It took Portland 25 shots to get their first seven first-half field goals.
It took nine shots and 6:35 to get their first seven field goals of the
second.

It wasn't that easy however. The Pilots cooled off, while the Toreros kept
plugging away and took a 54-50 lead.

That's when Sikma, then Stohl took over, and the game wasn't over until 7
seconds left, when USD's Devin Ginty missed a go-ahead three, and Stohl hit two free throws with 4.2 seconds left for the final margin.