If you are a fan of the University of Portland men’s basketball team, all you need to know about Saturday’s home game against St. Mary’s is that the Pilots shot 38.0 percent from the field.
And they committed 11 turnovers.
And Kevin Bailey fouled out of the game with 5:18 to play.
And late in the game when the Pilots had to foul, the Gaels made 12 of 14 free throws.
There were a couple of bright spots for Portland, but nothing brilliant enough to make up for so many shortcomings as the Gaels waltzed out of the Chiles Center with a 72-63 West Coast Conference victory before a crowd of 2,304.
Stephen Holt led St. Mary’s with 19 points and Beau Levesque scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half as the Gaels (11-4, 2-1 WCC) ran their winning streak against Portland to six games.
Want more good news?
The Pilots (9-7, 1-3) wrap up their five-game homestand Thursday against No. 24 Gonzaga.
That one tips at 8 p.m.
On Saturday, St. Mary’s deserved credit for disrupting many of the things that the Pilots like to do offensively, beginning with Gaels’ starting center Brad Waldow bumping Portland’s Thomas van der Mars off the spots where he normally likes to shoot jump hooks.
The other match-ups weren’t much different. The Pilots had scoring opportunities, but a lot of the shots came from a step or two outside each player’s usual comfort zone. And then there were some open looks, including a few from beyond the three-point arc, that the Pilots were reluctant to take.
“We strangled them,” said Holt, the former Jesuit High standout. “We wanted to push them out on the floor and make it a little bit tough to catch. Then once they caught it, just ball pressure.”
One of Portland’s best stretches came in the second half after Bailey picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench with 12:29 remaining and the Pilots trailing 52-42.
First, Bobby Sharp hit a 3-pointer. Van der Mars followed with a free throw, Alec Wintering hit an outside shot with a foot on the 3-point line, and Volodymyr Gerun hit a layup with an assist from Bryce Pressley that pulled the Pilots within 52-50 with 8:23 to play.
That was where the highlights ended for Portland.
The Pilots came up empty on their next four possessions, going 0 for 3 with three turnovers, and it went from being a two-point game to a 10-point game with 3:33 to play.
Portland never got closer than seven after that.
“We had to weather the storm,” said St. Mary’s assistant Eran Ganot, the Gaels’ acting head coach while Randy Bennett served the third game of a five-game NCAA suspension. “Our guys were composed, but … we felt like we could continue to execute offensively and get shots. The difference would be if we can get stops.
“Our guys fed off the momentum and the energy that they displayed in the first half and that got them going. And we went back to that in the second half at that crucial time when it got tight.”
Saturday’s game marked only the second time this season a team has held the Pilots below 40 percent shooting for a game. The other time was against North Texas, and they lost that one in overtime.
Ryan Nicholas led the Pilots with 12 points, but played only 20 minutes as Portland coach Eric Reveno opted to go with a bigger lineup that featured Gerun and Van der Mars on the floor together. Gerun played 20 minutes to match his season high and finished with eight points, four rebounds, and a blocked shot.
Wintering had 11 points, but made only 3 of 11 shots from the field, including 1 of 4 from 3-point range. Nobody made more than one 3-pointer for the Pilots, who hit 3 of 10 shots from beyond the arc.
Van der Mars led the team in rebounds with eight, but had only one at the offensive end. Again, that’s a credit to the Gaels’ defense. St. Mary’s had a 35-28 advantage in rebounds, including a 12-8 edge in offensive boards.
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