Sacramento State Defeats Portland in First Round of CIT
It’s always nice to end a season with a win, but the reality is that only a few teams will end their season in that fashion. Portland was hoping that a run through the CIT would give them that opportunity, but instead they fell in the first round of the tournament to the Hornets of Sacramento State 73-66.
Early on, it looked like the Pilots would be able to build a solid lead, but following a Technical foul on Alec Wintering Sacramento State went on a 12-1 run to end the half and the Pilots went into the break with no momentum and trailing by 6 points.
The second half didn’t start much better and the Hornets grew their lead to 13 with just under 12 minutes left in the game. The Pilots made a quick run that was started with three D’Marques Tyson free throws and fueled by Wintering and some solid defense. The Pilots finally pulled even at the 3:16 mark, but only scored one more basket the rest of the way, and the Hornets made their free throws down the stretch.
It was an interesting last quarter of the game as Coach Reveno decided to play a lineup that consisted of mostly players who will be back next season, as well as Voldy Gerun. It was fun to watch a lineup of Wintering, Pressley, Todd, and Taylor in there to see what they could do. Unfortunately for the Pilot faithful we will have to wait until next fall to see it again.
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Being the final game of the 2014-2015 season, we will have to say goodbye to a pretty solid group of seniors that include Academic All-American Thomas van der Mars, as well as Voldy Gerun, Bobby “we’ll always have the BYU game” Sharp, Riley Barker, David Carr, and last but not least Kevin Bailey. This group came in with some high hopes and while they struggled at times, they gave us some great memories, including a huge win over Gonzaga.
There won’t be a final word on this season until everything sinks in, but it didn’t turn out the way the Pilots wanted. They did get into the postseason for the fourth time under Eric Reveno but again failed to advance. There were some highlights and some lowlights, but all I know is that while I’m excited for March Madness and all the craziness that comes with it, I’m ready for November when the Pilots give it another shot to get into the big dance.