PILOTS BOUNCE TOREROS FROM WCC TOURNEY

The way USD head coach Sam Scholl talked about Portland before the teams met in the second round of the West Coast Conference Tournament on Friday night, you had to wonder if he confused the Pilots with Gonzaga.

“They’re playing about as well as anybody in our conference,” said Scholl. “They’re very skilled, great passers, got so many guys who can shoot the ball. It’s going to take probably our best effort of the year to compete.”

Portland didn’t exactly give an impression of the Zags, but the Pilots were good enough to lead wire to wire and hand USD a 73-55 defeat at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

With the loss, USD ends the season 15-16. Portland (18-13) advanced to the quarterfinals, where the Pilots took on third-seeded Santa Clara late Saturday.

If there were a vote for the WCC’S most improved team, Portland would be the unanimous winner. The Pilots were 1-42 in the conference the past three seasons.

That was before the Pilots hired former Eastern Washington head coach Shantay Legins, before Legins brought three players with him from an Eastern Washington team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament last year (when it led Kansas in the second half), before Legins laid a wrecking ball to the roster, bringing in 13 new scholarship players.

The sixth-seeded Pilots closed the regular season winning six of seven. They finished 7-7 in the conference, the seven wins matching the program’s total of the previous five seasons combined.

The Pilots got out to a 13-4 lead just 5 minutes, 30 seconds into the game. By halftime, Portland’s lead was 34-29.

USD would cut the lead to one at 38-37 with 16:51 to play.

With 12:05 to play in the game, the Toreros trailed just 47-44. The margin was four (55-51) with 7:33 remaining.

Maybe it was tired legs after beating Pepperdine 74-67 the night before, but the Toreros ran out of gas down the stretch. The Pilots outscored USD 18-4 the rest of the way

Moses Wood led Portland with 28 points, 21 in the second half. Three other players scored in double figures for Portland.

USD was led by Jase Townsend, who scored 17, plus had eight rebounds and three assists. In the final game of his collegiate career, 6-10 Pitt transfer Terrell Brown-soares scored 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting plus grabbed 12 rebounds.

After combining for 33 points on 12-of-25 shooting against Pepperdine, Joey Calcaterra and Marcellus Earlington shot just 4 of 18 against the Pilots, finishing with a combined 10 points.