By Kyle Cape-Lindelin
The Portland Pilots had two important games for their home stand last week: one against an undermanned and energized San Diego Toreros on Thursday night and another against the determined St. Mary's Gaels team fighting for the second spot in WCC standings with the Pilots.
Despite a gritty first half with San Diego and going into overtime with St. Mary's, all without their leading scorer senior Nik Raivio, the Pilots once again came out with two important wins.
With the victories, the Pilots now are only a half game behind St. Mary's for the second spot in the standings, behind Gonzaga, who leads the conference.
If St. Mary's loses one game out of the three remaining or if the Pilots win out the rest of their games, the Pilots will get the second spot and a two game bye in the upcoming WCC Tournament in Las Vegas, starting March 5. St. Mary's still has to play at San Diego University while finishing out the season with home games against Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount.
The Pilots began the homestand strong on Thursday night, going on an 8-0 run to start the game while holding San Diego scoreless for the first five minutes with tenacious defense and lead point-guard T.J. Campbell in control.
The Pilots went cold soon after as their defense let up allowing San Diego to make a run of their own. San Diego tied the score in only three minutes with transition buckets and found success feeding it into their post players. Portland had the lead going into the half-time 27-23.
After the break Portland took control with an 11-1 run to start the second half, including five straight points from junior Jared Stohl to give them a 38-24 lead with 16 minutes remaining. The Toreros got as close as 13 points with four minutes to go before Portland sealed the victory 70-56.
"We just had to keep grinding, we let them get comfortable early which gave us trouble and I just told them at halftime to work on getting better, take a deep breath and settle down," said head coach Eric Reveno following the game.
Campbell led the team with 18 points on 5-10 shooting from three-point range, while senior Robin Smeulders collected a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Junior Jared Stohl also added 14 points and six assists with no turnovers and a career-high of five two-point field goals.
The St. Mary's win went down to the wire and wasn't over until the final seconds as both teams fought back and forth for the second spot in the standings.
After trailing most of the first period and by as much as 11 points, the Pilots closed the half with a 15-2 run over the final three minutes, which included two three-pointers by Stohl and one by Campbell to take the lead 44-35 at half-time.
"We wanted them to be uncomfortable on offense and we did that by attacking on both sides of the ball to get them on their heels," Reveno said on the run to end the first half.
The Pilots remained in control of the game until back-to-back baskets by the Gaels gave them a 72-70 lead with 40 seconds to go. Campbell made a tough driving layup with 25 seconds on the clock and then senior Luke Sikma drew an offensive foul with four seconds left to put it into overtime.
With 47 seconds left, Sikma also finished a key layup from Campbell's assist to give the Pilots a 77-75 lead. Following free-throws from Campbell and senior Ethan Niedermeyer, the Pilots escaped from the Chiles Center with an exciting win 80-75.
"I just found myself at the right place at the right time and I made some good things happen," Sikma said. "We really scrapped and fought hard to get this big team win while also putting on an entertaining show for fans, but we still got a lot of work to do."
Luke Sikma got his fifth double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds to go along with four assists and three key steals. Campbell tied his career high 24 points while dishing out seven assists and getting three steals. St. Mary's Omar Samhan finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds while fouling out with 1:30 left in overtime, Portland took control of the game following his exit.
"Just two good teams going at it, they made some plays and we countered them and were able to get out of it with a victory, it's nice battling for the second spot instead of the sixth or seventh like years past," Reveno said following the win against St. Mary's.
"We got a lot of work left to do, every game is important now. We can't take any team lightly if we want the bye in the tournament," Reveno said.
