Reactions to Portland’s win on Senior Day
March 6, 2013; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Portland Pilots huddle against the Loyola Marymount Lions during the second half of the WCC Basketball Championships at Orleans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Portland needed the two wins this week. They came into the week in 6th in the WCC trailing Pepperdine by a game and a half. Two wins for Portland, and two losses for Pepperdine means Portland is now in 5th in the WCC with 4 games remaining. Portland’s remaining schedule is pretty tough with 4 road games, at San Diego, at BYU, at Saint Mary’s, and then finishing up the season on the road at Pacific, which could be turn out to be a huge game, depending on how both teams fair from now until March 1. Finishing in the top 6 is going to be a huge deal, but I’ll discuss that more later. For now, this week was huge.
On Senior night, Portland had great contributions from their Seniors including a surprise 10 points from Tanner Riley, some great defense, energy, and timely points (also untimely and questionable technical foul) from Korey Thieleke, and same old same old from Ryan Nicholas (which Portland will surely miss next year)
Portland controlled the game, and when their offense faltered, their defense increased and they led from the get go. Also interesting to note Portland got both wins without leading scorer Kevin Bailey. Hopefully Portland can build off of this and take the momentum on the road.