Box Score
ANAHEIM, Calif. --- A week after making regional headlines with a win over Oregon, the Portland Pilots will now be in the national spotlight after a dominating 74-47 win over the UCLA Bruins in front of an ESPN2 audience in the opening round of the 76 Classic Thursday at the Anaheim Convention Center. The Pilots improve to 4-0 for the first time since the 1995-96 season and will face No. 16 Minnesota in a second round matchup on Friday at 6:30 p.m. on ESPNU.
Minnesota was an 82-73 victor over No. 10 Butler on Thursday night. UCLA falls to 2-2 on the young season. The 1995-96 Portland team opened 6-0 and was the last Portland squad to make the NCAA Tournament.
Senior T.J. Campbell and junior Jared Stohl led a balanced Portland attack with 15 points each. Stohl drilled all five of his three-point attempts and moved into third place on the UP career three-point charts with 160. Campbell, Portland’s career three-point percentage leader, was 3-for-5 from downtown and 6-for-7 at the foul line.
Senior Nik Raivio added 13 points, five assists and four rebounds, while seven other Pilots got into the scoring column.
Portland led by as much as 31 points in the second half and shot a blistering 54 percent from the field for the game. The Pilots, who were No. 2 nationally in three-point percentage last year, finished the night 11-of-19 from beyond the arch. Defensively, Portland held the Bruins to 33 percent shooting and 5-for-23 on three-point attempts, primarily with a stifling zone defense.
Campbell started the onslaught with a three-pointer on Portland’s first shot attempt of the game. The Pilots would never relinquish the lead and only allow the Bruins to tie the game three times early. Portland created separation with a 7-0 run capped by a Luke Sikma layup for a 14-7 lead. The Pilots would continue to build the lead and used a 22-12 run to close the half with a 36-19 margin.
The Pilots continued to apply the pressure as Campbell drilled another three on the first possession of the second half. A Drew Gordon jumper with 17:01 left made it a 17-point deficit for the Bruins, but Ethan Niedermeyer answered with a three at the other end and Portland never looked back.
The other semifinals matchup in the 76 Classic will pit No. 8 West Virginia, winners over Long Beach State, against Texas A&M, who upset No. 19 Clemson. That game will be at 11:30 a.m. on Friday. All participating teams will take Saturday off, while the 76 Classic Championship game is scheduled for Sunday at 7 p.m. (Pacific).
Game No. 4 Post-game Quotes - Portland vs. UCLA
Portland
Coach Eric Reveno - “I just told the guys how proud I am of the work they did to get ready for this game and this opportunity. This is why we flip tires during the summer and grind when nobody is watching. I’m proud of the team for following through with the game plan. It’s fun to be able to take advantage of this tournament on game one.”
(on if the game’s outcome was surprising) “We competed well against a great program that is in transition. I have tremendous respect for their staff. I’m proud of us for not letting them get on track during the game. I told the team that UCLA was a better team than they had seen on film this year. Maybe they were out of sorts today, or we were just the better team.
Player Jarod Stohl - “UCLA is a great program to play against and this has been a great experience for our team. The more we play teams like UCLA, the better we become.”
(on making baskets) “It was like throwing rocks into the ocean… balls were just dropping in and it felt good.”
Player TJ Campbell - “It’s good to see where we are at as a team and to get some experience playing some very tough programs.”
(on being surprised with the outcome of the game) “ We feed off of each other and once we started hitting shots, they couldn’t’ stop us. I’m not surprised because we had a good game plan and stuck with it.”
UCLA
Coach Ben Howland - “I thought that we really played poorly tonight and a lot of it had to do with Portland. We knew coming in they were really good. We didn’t attack their zone well, our transition defense was poor. I thought their little point guard played well tonight, Campbell. He had 15 points on five shots and really handled their team well. We really have some soul searching to do before we step on the court in about 22 hours against Butler because we haven’t had a game like that since my first year here and it really feels horrible. It starts right here. We are obviously a long way from being a good team, the team that we expect to be. We didn’t do a good job stopping the ball. We did a poor job attacking their zone. We need to do a better job on the defensive end. That’s what we’ve hung our hat on at UCLA since I’ve been here and we didn’t look anything like that tonight.”
Player James Keefe - “First of all, Portland came out and they were hungry. We didn’t match their intensity. It was really frustration to see us perform that way in our own backyard. They were the aggressor.”
