SAN DIEGO – Eugene Jeter’s driving layup with 2.7 seconds remaining Friday hit the rim and bounced away, leaving Portland short in a 65-63 first-round loss to Loyola Marymount in the first round of the West Coast Conference tournament at the University of San Diego.

Portland finished its season 11-17 overall, while LMU moved to 11-19 and advanced to play #3 San Francisco in the second round March 8. Adam Quick scored 18 points to lead all scorers, while Casey Frandsen added 17, and Eugene Jeter 14. Sherman Gay and Charles Brown topped LMU with 13 points each, and Andy Osborn added 12 off the bench.

“It was a very competitive game. LMU was more focused on winning and played with a hard competitive edge,” said Portland head coach Michael Holton. “We put ourselves in a position to win, on a night when we didn’t play our best basketball.”

The Pilots had rallied from an 11-point deficit to close within 60-59 with 2:15 left in the game, but consecutive baskets by LMU’s Sherman Gay pushed the lead to 64-59 with 55 seconds left.

After a pair of Jeter free throws three seconds later, the Pilots’ press forced an LMU turnover, but Donald Wilson was whistled for an offensive foul going to the basket.

On the next LMU possession, Jeter forced another turnover, was fouled and sank two free throws, closing the Pilots within 64-63 and still 35 seconds left. A third LMU turnover in under a minute got the ball to Jeter. The Pilots held the ball for the last shot, running the clock down under five seconds before Jeter started his drive to the hoop. Jeter was apparently fouled in his attempt to shoot, but his shot hit the rim and bounced away.

The Pilots fouled the rebounder, who made only one of two free throw attempts, leaving Portland with 2.7 seconds to tie the game. A pass to half-court was knocked away by the Lions, extending Portland’s string of WCC tourney first-round losses to seven straight seasons.

The loss was the first this season for Portland when tied at halftime (34-34), and just the second in 11 games when Portland led or was tied at halftime (9-2).

LMU outscored Portland 14-3 over the first seven minutes of the second half, opening a 48-37 lead as the Pilots had just one field goal in that span. Frandsen then hit a pair of 3-pointers to spark a 9-0 Portland run, capped by five straight points from Donald Wilson to get the Pilots back within the game.

Jeter fueled a 7-2 Portland advantage to close the first half, scoring four points in the final 52 seconds to knot the game at 34-34. Portland trailed 27-19 with 5:42 left, and 32-27 at 1:39, before Casey Frandsen hit a 3-pointer, Jeter followed with a driving layup, and closed the run with a leaning drive with three seconds left on the clock.

The Pilots trailed for much of the first half, and Andy Osborn scored 12 points off the bench to lift LMU to several leads. In fact, Portland led just once at 8-6 on a pair of Adam Quick free throws at 14:12. Quick topped Portland with 11 points in the first half, while Jeter and Frandsen scored eight points each.

Portland was hurt by 38% field goal shooting in the second half (8-21), but made 18-of-22 free throws and forced LMU into 20 turnovers. Portland finished the game shooting 45.5% from the field, but were out-rebounded 31-25.

“I don’t think we realized until five minutes to go in the game what was at stake,” said junior guard Adam Quick. “They forced us to play catchup, and that’s a bad pattern to get into.”