By Jeff Trousdale
The five seniors on the University of Portland's women's basketball team have endured much during their time on The Bluff, all of which made last week's final home stand so much sweeter. Though they only went 1-13 as freshmen, the Pilots' seniors helped the team improve each year, capping off their home careers by clinching the second seed in the WCC tournament over the weekend.
The Pilots split their final two home games, losing to San Diego 71-64 on Thursday but defeating Santa Clara 61-53 on Saturday, the last home game for the seniors. Despite their loss, the UP women clinched the second seed Thursday night due to losses by both Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount.
The Pilots shot 62 percent in the first half, taking a 41-35 lead, but shot 28 percent in the second half to let the Toreros take the victory. Junior Laiken Dollente, who led the Pilots with 14 points despite battling early foul trouble, gave credit to San Diego.
"They were all over the place on defense," Dollente said. "I think their defense dictated the game."
UP maintained its lead during much of the second half, but were unable to distance themselves from the Toreros. San Diego junior Morgan Henderson exploited the Pilots' defense particularly well by hitting four 3-pointers in the second half on her way to a game high 21 points. Her biggest three came with 2:23 left in the game when she put the Toreros up 63-62, giving them the lead for good.
"We know she's a shooter," Dollente said. "Lauren (Angel) did the best she could guarding her but she just hit shots."
Portland Head Coach Jim Sollars said that the Pilots also needed to improve on boxing out and limiting turnovers. UP had 19 turnovers and 31 rebounds, while the Toreros had 18 turnovers and 40 rebounds.
Saturday's game saw no real improvement in the rebounding category; they had 31 again while Santa Clara pulled down 37. But they did improve on turnovers this time around, coughing the ball up only 10 times while forcing the Broncos into 18 mistakes.
The Pilots' five seniors, Jennifer Wassom, Allyson Sievers, Carly Koebel, Karlie Burris and Andrea Wujek all started the game, but their experience didn't translate into early success as UP started out slowly for the second consecutive game.
The two teams exchanged leads for most of the first half until an 8-2 run was sparked with two free throws by Sievers, and capped with 3-pointers by Dollente and Wassom.
The Pilots' momentum carried over into the second half as they built their lead up to as high as 10 points before finishing with the 61-53 victory. Wassom said that the win was a great way to cap a successful regular season.
"In the years before we've always struggled through it and this is big for all of us going out," Wassom said. "We definitely deserve it."
Sollars said that his seniors will be nearly impossible to replace.
"Carly Koebel is smart, mature and caring about her teammates, Andrea Wujek is the only walk on I've ever had as a captain," Sollars said. "Burris and Sievers are by far our two best defensive players and Jennifer Wassom has matured to become the perfect person coming off the bench. She doesn't turn the ball over and she knows how to play."
Despite the senior leadership, Sollars said his team looked tired and still needed to box out better, but he planned to give his players a couple of days off to prepare for the upcoming tournament. He said he hopes to make some noise in the upcoming tournament, but he is preparing for challenges from Pepperdine or possibly St. Mary's.
"They're not good matchups for us, they're so different from us." Sollars said. "Pepperdine is extremely athletic and St. Mary's plays wild, ugly basketball."
The Pilots need only to win two games in the tournament in order to make it to the NCAA tournament, and if that doesn't happen Sollars said that his team could be vying for a spot in the NIT tournament.
But for the seniors on this team, an already fantastic season could be made even better by a berth in March Madness.
"We want to surprise teams," Wassom said. "Show them who UP is and we won't be holding back."
