PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland senior Pooh Jeter scored a season-high 31 points, but the Gonzaga duo of Adam Morrison and J.P. Batista combined for 65 points as the No. 5 Bulldogs dealt the Pilots a 97-83 loss Monday evening at the Chiles Center.
Pilots senior Darren Cooper added 23, including five three-pointers, and senior Donald Wilson chipped in 13 points and seven boards.
Batista matched a season-high with 32 points and added 10 rebounds. Morrison, the second leading scorer in the nation entering the game, finished with 33 points on 11 of 20 shooting. Junior forward Sean Mallon added 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Zags.
A crowd of 4,574, the ninth largest in Chiles Center history, witnessed four of the West Coast Conference’s most talented players trade baskets in a shootout which included 104 combined second-half points. Jeter and Cooper entered as the WCC’s top guard scoring combination at 31.0 per game, while Morrison and Batista are the league’s top two scorers at 28.6 and 19.5 per game, respectively.
“I was proud of our backcourt production,” Portland head coach Michael Holton said. “Pooh and Darren played as well as anyone on the court tonight and they have continued to consistently deliver.”
The difference was a 52-24 points in the paint advantage for the Bulldogs (21-3, 10-0 WCC), who pushed their winning streak to 12 games after taking a 12-point halftime lead. The Pilots (8-16, 2-8 WCC) responded by scoring 51 points in the second half on 53 percent shooting, but the Zags continued to shoot well and countered with 53 points after the break.
“I thought it was a very competitive game and I was proud of our effort,” said Holton. “To match the No. 5 team in the country basket-for-basket in the second half was encouraging. They were able to get early transition opportunities and I thought that was the turning point in the game.”
The Bulldogs pushed a 44-32 halftime lead to as much as 23 points in the second half on a lay-up by Batista with 13 minutes remaining and the teams would trade hoops over the next 10 minutes before Portland used 12-3 run to close the gap in the waning minutes.
The 97 points was an opponent season-high as GU shot 53 percent from the field for the game and knocked down 25 of 29 free throw attempts. The Pilots finished at 43 percent from the floor and 14 of 20 at the line.
The Pilots led briefly at 6-4 before a 14-2 run gave the Bulldogs a 10-point lead five minutes into the game. Portland narrowed the margin to four on a Cooper jumper at 8:42 in the first period, but Batista and Morrison combined for 13 straight points late in the half as GU provided itself a comfortable cushion.
Portland will look to rebound with a trip to Southern California this weekend. The Pilots will play at Pepperdine at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 19 and at Loyola Marymount on Monday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. Both games can be heard on 1550 KKAD or on the web at portlandpilots.com.
