WCC Basketball Fans

Portland 88, Utah 79

Just when the plane was about to crash, some adept and agile Pilots pulled their vehicle out of a tailspin and landed safely in a place called the winner’s circle.

The Pilots of the University of Portland improved to 12-3 with a come-from-behind victory over the Utah Utes at the Chiles Center on New Years Eve.  Portland was paced by Nemanja Mitrovic and Jared Stohl, who each scored 21 points.  Pilots head coach Eric Reveno had to be pleased with the way his team continually fought back from adversity.

It was a game of runs, the Pilots jumped out to an early 11-0 lead on the back of sloppy Utah play, which included four turnovers.  Jim Boylen was able to calm his Utes down, however, and Utah responded with a 21-5 run to take an 11-point lead into the halftime locker room.  Sadly for the Utes, they couldn’t sustain the momentum in the second half, crumbling on the road and blowing a chance to snag a quality non-conference win against a regional counterpart from the West Coast Conference. With BYU set to join the West Coast Conference and establish a rivalry with Gonzaga in the 2011-2012 basketball season, it was just a little more important for Utah – one of BYU’s pursuers in the Mountain West – to display the ability to outclass Portland, one of Gonzaga’s main contenders, in the WCC. This game carried an extra degree of resonance and stature in light of the upcoming exchanges between these two conferences. Utah’s late-night flight back to Salt Lake City could not have been a particularly happy one. Boylen’s boys blew it.

Trailing by 11 points midway through the second half, the Pilots – thrown to the canvas by Utah’s first-half surge – picked themselves off the deck by scoring 13 unanswered points, eight of those by Stohl. In a heartbeat, Portland amassed a four-point lead.  Then, Mr. Mitrovic took over the contest.  The sharpshooter scored 16 of Portland’s next 24 points as the Pilots put the matchup out of the reach.

Will Clyburn and Chris Kuperts paced the Utes with 24 and 20 points respectively, but those numbers – as attractive as they might appear on the surface – can’t mask the pain of a particularly stinging defeat. Some non-conference games don’t offer the emotional edge this one owned; not with BYU’s impending move to the WCC next season.

Somehow, the Portland Pilots won’t get themselves to commiserate over Utah’s predicament as 2010 comes to an end.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer