Junior Khalila O’Rielly-Williams recorded 21 points and a career-high six steals, but the Pilots were unable to pull out the win against Gonzaga in front of a record 1,887 fans Saturday afternoon at the Kennel. Portland lost, 72-59 and now moves to 8-10 overall, 2-3 in the WCC. Gonzaga improves to 12-8 on the season, 3-2 in WCC play.

The Pilots tossed up the first points of the game as Khalila O'Rielly-Williams and Michaela Dalgleish scored the first six points. Raenna Jewell sank a three-pointer to give the Bulldogs a 10-8 lead at 15:41, but the Pilots answered quickly with two free throws by Jamie Medley. Anne Bailey hit back-to-back jumpers to spark a 6-1 point run over Portland before the Pilots answered again, tying the game 16-all with 12:29 remaining. Bailey pulled Gonzaga ahead less than a minute later with two shots from the charity stripe and a three-pointer as GU hung on to a narrow lead to go into halftime with a 36-31 advantage.

The Bulldogs built upon their first-half lead as Burke and Jewell gave GU five points in the first minute of the second-half. O'Rielly-Williams hit a jumper to bring the Pilots within three points at 16:31. The Bulldogs pulled away in the next three minutes with seven unanswered points. Anderson collected six points in two minutes to maintain the marginal lead with less than five minutes to play. Allen sank four free throws in the last 20 seconds of play to give the Bulldogs the 72-59 win.

Khalila O'Rielly-Williams paced Portland with a game-high 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the floor and 7-of-10 shooting from the free-throw line, while Dalgleish added 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Portland finished the game shooting 35.7 percent from the field, 22.2 percent from three-point territory and 65.2 percent the free-throw line.

“We played real hard today,” said Head Coach Jim Sollars. “We didn’t execute, but our effort was there and that’s the starting point with our younger kids. It doesn’t take many mistakes on the road to make it hard to come back. Overall, I am proud of our effort.”

Gonzaga finished shooting 45.8 percent from the field and 41.7 percent beyond the arc while going 81.3 percent from the free-throw line. The Bulldogs out rebounded the Pilots 42-31 while the UP collected 20 points off of 19 turnovers. Ashley Burke (12), Raeanna Jewell (12), Shannon Mathews (10) and Triana Allen (13) all scored in double-figures to help lead the Zags.

UP NEXT: On Thurs., Jan. 30, the Pilots will face Santa Clara on the road at 7:00 p.m. Portland will take on San Diego on Sat., Feb. 1 at 7:00 p.m. in San Diego, CA. The Pilots are back at home on Thurs., Feb. 6 against Pepperdine at 7:00 p.m. and on Sat., Feb. 8 against Loyola Marymount at 7:00 p.m.