PORTLAND – Was it Déjà Vu all over again for the Pilots? San Francisco’s Tyrone Riley didn’t call glass on a made three-point bucket, but it didn’t matter as the Dons snuck out with a 58-56 victory tonight at the Chiles Center. In the last meeting between the two teams, USF’s Riley drilled a three-pointer with 20 ticks remaining to send the game to overtime in a game that the Dons would eventually win. Portland (15-12, 4-8 WCC) had two chances to convert tonight, but couldn’t get the job done, as USF’s (14-10, 5-6 WCC) Riley led all players with 24 points and nine rebounds.

“It was a tough loss and a big loss for us tonight,” said head coach Michael Holton. “For us not to get a quality shot at the goal late in the game falls on my shoulders. They (USF) came in with a real hard competitive edge in which we were slow to respond. When we did respond in the second half, we put ourselves in a position to win. Nineteen turnovers for us is a bit much, but at the end of the day, we had a lot of high percentage shots that we didn’t convert.”

Portland was up by two with just 42 seconds to go in the game, but a three-pointer off the glass by Riley with 19 second left gave the Dons a one-point edge, 57-56. After the Pilots brought the ball up the court, a timeout was called. With seven seconds left, Portland turned the ball over on a bad inbounds pass to USF’s Jerome Gumbs. Gumbs was immediately fouled and then converted one-of-two free-throws for a 58-56 USF lead. Portland had the ball with five seconds left as Pooh Jeter went coast-to-coast and seemed to get tripped up, but no call was made and the Dons went on to win.

“It breaks your heart to lose like this,” said Karl Aaker. “You’ve got to learn from this one and move on to the next.”

“It’s heartbreaking and sooner or later we have to take the initiative to close out games, “ said Darren Cooper. “We’ve got to execute down the stretch.”

For the game, both teams shot a marginal 29 percent from the floor. Portland connected on 13-of-45, while the Dons made 19-of-66. The Pilots held an edge on the boards, 42-40, but were outscored in points in the paint, 18-12 and in second chance points, 14-8. Portland had seven more turnovers than the Dons which led to an 18-15 edge in Pilot miscues for the game. The Pilots received 18 points from its bench, compared to USF’s eight.

For the game, Jeter led the Pilots with 14 points and was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. Ben Sullivan also hit double-digits with 12, adding seven boards to his line. Freshman Marcus Lewis recorded a career-best 14 rebounds in the game. Aaker added nine points, shooting perfect from long range (3-3). For the game, Portland shot 40 percent (6-15) from three-point range and 75 percent (24-32) from the free-throw line.

Assisting Riley in the game was John Cox. Cox shot just 5-of-20 from the floor, but recorded 14 points and seven rebounds on the night. The Dons managed 7-of-22 from long range and 13-of-20 from the stripe.

A sluggish start by the Pilots allowed the Dons to open an early 10-5 lead. Neither team shot well in the first half, but the Dons managed a 6-0 run with just over nine minutes to go in the half for an 18-9 lead. Portland chipped away at the Dons’ lead as Jeter scored on back-to-back-to-back baskets, closing to within one point, 20-19. Another quick run by the Dons pushed the lead back to seven with three minutes left, but the Pilots connected on 5-of-6 freebies down the stretch to make it a 32-25 ball game at the half.

Portland committed eight turnover and shot a season-low 4-of-25 (16 percent) from the field in the first half, but outrebounded the Dons, 23-17. San Francisco shot 11-of-28 from the floor and outscored the Pilots 12-2 on points in the paint. The Pilots scored the majority of their points from the stripe, converting 15-of-20 in the first half.

USF’s Riley led all players with 18 first half points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and 3-of-3 shooting from long range. Jeter led the Pilots with nine points in the first half.

The Pilots will face San Diego on Feb. 19 for a 7:00 p.m. tip at the Chiles Center.