Dee leads San Diego past Portland

Jan 18, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Diego Toreros guard

(5) drives to the basket against San Francisco Dons guard

(10) during the first half at War Memorial Gymnasium. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

Johnny Dee  scored 21 points as the San Diego Toreros pulled off a road upset of the Portland Pilots by a score of 65-63.  Alec Wintering almost gave Portland a 3-point play and the lead with 10 seconds left but his layup was waved off when Dennis Kramer‘s foul on Wintering was ruled on the floor, not in the act of shooting.  Instead, Wintering missed the front end of the one-and-one, Dee hit two free throws for San Diego to put the Toreros up 4, and the game was all but over at that point.

Dee scored efficiently again, as he has now hit 7 consecutive three point shots over the past two games.  Kramer contributed to the San Diego attack with a double-double, compiling 15 points and 10 rebounds.  Christopher Anderson had yet another horrific shooting night, yet he still managed to contribute 8 assists.

Kevin Bailey led Portland with 21 points, while Riley Barker came in off the bench to scored an unexpected 10 points.  Ryan Nicholas struggled shooting the ball but led the Pilots with 11 rebounds.

KEYS TO THE GAME REVISITED

Portland 

X – Contain Dee: Johnny Dee continued his tremendous shooting of late and the Pilots could do nothing to stop him.  21 points on only 10 shot attempts is incredibly efficient, and while Portland did a good job guard nearly everyone else, they couldn’t stop Dee, who carried the Toreros to victory.

San Diego

X – Scoring help outside the big 4: I seriously considered giving a check mark for this key, as both Chris Sarbaugh and Brett Bailey scored 5 points off the bench.  But they are still going to need more from the bench if they want to contend for wins on a nightly basis in the WCC.

KEY MATCHUP

Johnny Dee vs. Bobby Sharp:  This one was all Dee.  Sharp shot just 2/7 from the field in 13 minutes, while Dee had one of his best games of the season.  Scoring only 63 points, Portland could have used more from Sharp off the bench.

MOVING FORWARD

Portland has played 2 outstanding games at home against two of the best teams in the West Coast Conference, but they haven’t really impressed me in most of their 19 other games.  Maybe its inexperience in the backcourt, maybe it was tired legs, but this team is very inconsistent.  The Pilots will look to regroup on Wednesday when they travel to War Memorial Gym to face 3rd place San Francisco.

San Diego desperately needed a victory to try to emerge in the middle of the pack in the conference.  After many close losses, it was nice to see them hold on to this victory, even with the questionable call at the end of the game.  The Toreros host Saint Mary’s on Thursday night and it will interesting to see if they can carry the momentum into that contest.