PORTLAND, Ore. -- Loyola Marymount senior guard Wes Wardrop couldn’t miss Saturday night as the Lions dealt the Portland Pilots an 84-68 loss at the Chiles Center. Wardrop finished with 25 points on 8 of 8 shooting including five three-pointers as the Lions (6-11, 3-0 WCC) remained unbeaten in West Coast Conference games.

Senior guard Pooh Jeter led the Pilots (7-10, 1-2 WCC) with 25 points and senior guard/forward Donald Wilson recorded his first career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, but no other Pilot reached double-figures.

LMU junior forward Matthew Knight, the reigning WCC Co-Player of the Week, finished with 22 points and 11 boards. Chris Ayer and Jon Ziri added 12 and 11 points, respectively.

"They played like a first-place team tonight," Portland head coach Michael Holton said. "I thought they were extremely focused and determined and man-for-man we didn’t match them. Our contributions across our entire roster wasn’t strong enough to knock them off."

The game began at a frenzied pace with both teams hitting their first three shot attempts and then running out to a 19-19 score with 11:58 remaining in the period. As the Lions continued the offensive assault, the Pilots made just one field goal over the final 8:28 of the first half as LMU carried a 43-30 lead into the break. Wardrop had 14 first-half points on 5 of 5 shooting to lead the barrage.

"In the beginning we just traded baskets instead of getting defensive stops," said Jeter.

"It was a shootout and we got shot out," added Holton.

Portland emerged from the half extending the defense and forcing a pair of turnovers leading to consecutive layups by Jeter and Darren Cooper. Following another defensive stop, Jeter drained a jumper to make it 43-36 with 18:23 remaining. LMU followed with a 12-5 run and maintained a double-digit lead until 7:05, when freshman guard Brian McTear made it 61-53 with a driving layup.

LMU guard Jon Ziri answered with a three-point and Knight finished a layup on the break before Jeter hit his second trey of the night and Marcus Lewis made one free throw to make it a six point deficit with 4:33 remaining. Knight followed with consecutive baskets and Ziri hit a three from the corner to push the margin to 13 points at 73-60 with 2:19 remaining.

Wilson and Jeter converted two quick baskets and Jeter was fouled with 1:22 remaining and a chance to bring the deficit to seven with a pair of made free throws. He toed the line having made 32 consecutive free throws dating back to a Dec. 17 game at Washington State, but the front end of the one-and-one rimmed out and the Lions made 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch to ice the game.

LMU shot 47 percent from the field, made 8 of 11 three-point attempts and 24 of 30 at the charity stripe. Portland finished at 42 percent from the floor, 5 of 15 from downtown and 9 of 17 at the free throw line.

"In this league (WCC) nothing is easy and you must learn from mistakes," Wilson said. "We have to get over this and focus on Pepperdine."

The Pilots and Pepperdine Waves meet at 7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 16 at the Chiles Center in a televised game on FSN Northwest and FSN West 2. Paul Sunderland and Bill Krueger will call the action. The game is also available via radio on 1550 KKAD and audio streamed at portlandpilots.com