WCC Basketball Fans

Portland 85, St. Mary’s 70

Fresh off their first victory at Gonzaga in nearly 15 years, many began to crown the St. Mary’s Gaels as the class of the West Coast Conference and head and shoulders above their conference colleagues. Someone forgot to tell the Portland Pilots. The Portland Pilots defeated the St. Mary’s Gaels at the Chiles Center in Portland Oregon on Saturday. The Pilots improved to 4-3 in the West Coast Conference. The Gaels dropped to 6-1 and failed to get through the first half of the conference schedule unblemished.

Portland came out of the second half locker room with vengeance, ushering in an amazing 27-2 run in the opening minutes to stretch what was a two point halftime lead to a 60-33 laugher. Whatever Portland head coach Eric Reveno told his squad at intermission, he may be well-served to use it again later in the year. Freshman Tim Douglas, who scored 10 points during this amazing rally, led the Pilots with 26 points. It was tremendous shooting from behind the arc that lifted Portland time and again. The Pilots finished the matchup converting 13-of-20 from distance. Jared Stohl contributed heavily to the great beyond-the-arc number for Portland, scoring 21 points on 5-of-7 from the three-point line.

Following the 25 point Portland rally, St. Mary’s responded with a run of its own. The Gaels scored 13 consecutive points to cut the lead to 14. Head coach Randy Bennett’s squad continued to chip away at the Pilot lead, eventually getting within 8 before Portland countered with a run of its own to seal the game. Guard Mickey McConnell, fresh off his game-winning jumper against Gonzaga, continued his dynamic play. McConnell hit five 3-pointers and finished with 32 points on the evening. St. Mary’s, never shy from heaving the three-ball, had an astounding 31 attempts from beyond-the-arc. The Gaels hit on only 10 of those attempts.
On a day and night which saw many ranked opponents fall by the wayside, Portland wanted a piece of the action. The West Coast Conference has a slice of parity not seen for some time. There are five teams within 2 games of first place. It seems that, as the college basketball world in general, there isn’t a gimmie game to be found in the 2011 version of the West Coast Conference. The Portland Pilots gave St. Mary’s that rude awakening this evening.

Zach Bloxham
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer