Darren Cooper and Taishi Ito both notch career highs as Pilots stay undefeated in WCC play

PORTLAND, Ore. --- The University of Portland men’s basketball team started out hot and kept it going all night, breezing past Loyola Marymount 81-65 at the Chiles Center Monday night. Senior guard Darren Cooper set a new career-high with 28 points to lead all scorers while freshman guard Taishi Ito netted a career-high 16.

Portland (6-12, 2-0 WCC) remains undefeated in West Coast Conference play while Loyola Marymount (8-10, 0-2 WCC) lost its fifth consecutive game. Portland’s 2-0 start in league play is the first since the 2000-01 season. After starting 2-11, the Pilots have won four of their last five games, including four straight at the Chiles Center.

The Pilots led by as much as 26 points in the game and shot a season-high 63.4 percent from the field, making 26-of-41 attempts, while limiting LMU to 38.3 percent shooting (23-for-60).

“Tonight was a good effort and a great performance,” Portland head coach Eric Reveno said. “Our effort has been there all season, but it’s ultimately a game of performance and players have to make plays. Tonight we did both.” 

Portland came out firing and used a 10-0 run midway through the first half to take a 30-13 lead with 6:18 remaining. Four different Pilots scored during the run, which was capped by a Jamie Jones jumper. Jones finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots to record his fourth double-double of the season.

Portland pushed the margin to 41-16 with under a minute remaining in the period as Ito drained a three-pointer and two free throws to close the run. A jumper by LMU guard Corey Counts made it 41-18 Pilots at the break. The 41 points scored was a first half season high, while the 18 points allowed marked a UP opponent season low.

LMU mounted a brief second half charge and cut the lead to 43-29 on a steal and layup by junior guard Damian Martin with 16:03 remaining. The Pilots responded using a 19-7 run to gain their largest lead at 62-35 with 8:46 left, but LMU clawed back within 12 at 68-56 as senior forward Matthew Knight had 10 points during a three-minute span. The Lions would get no closer as Portland extended the lead in the closing minutes.

Knight finished with a team-high 24 points for the Lions, while Adoyah Miller and Marko Deric added 11 and 10, respectively.

Senior center Kevin Field made all five of his shot attempts for Portland and finished with 10 points and four boards.

Cooper finished 7-for-11 from the field and 12-for-15 at the foul line. In two conference games, he is averaging 23.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

“We knew coming in that they were going to be very aggressive defensively and we prepared hard for that in practice,” Cooper said. “The coaches did a good job of getting us ready and everybody stepped up and played well.

“Starting off with two (conference) wins is a big boost of momentum for a young team like ours. We have a lot of confidence heading into our first conference road trip.”

The last time the Pilots have opened conference with three wins was in 1995 when Portland started 4-0 and finished with a 10-4 league mark, the best in school history.

“We are far from being as good of a team as we can be,” Reveno said. “But the guys have given us as a staff enough effort to know that we can get there. We have to continue our commitment to defense, maintain our discipline, and just develop a little more consistency.”

Portland is next at Saint Mary’s on Saturday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. The game will be televised in the Portland market live on PDX49. It can also be heard live on KKAD 1550-AM or online at portlandpilots.com

NOTE: Portland’s Ben Sullivan and LMU’s Jon Ziri were ejected from the game with 2:25 remaining after both players went to the floor and got in a tussle. The immediate ejections resulted from what the officials deemed as fighting.