Box Score I WCC Championships Bracket (pdf)
PORTLAND, Ore. --- The Portland Pilots finish in sole possession of second place in the West Coast Conference after defeating the Santa Clara Broncos 61-53 on Saturday afternoon at the Chiles Center to conclude the regular season. The Pilots, who improve to 17-12 overall and 10-4 in the league, claim the No. 2 seed at next week’s WCC Championships (March 6-9) at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. The Pilots automatically advance to the tourney’s semifinals, which will take place on Sunday, March 8.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs are the top seed after winning their fifth straight regular season conference title. The Bulldogs will play in Sunday’s other semifinal match-up.
The second-place showing is the best finish for the Pilots in the WCC since the 1996-97 team took the No. 1 seed after going a perfect 14-0.
The 17 wins are the most for Portland since the 1997-98 squad went 19-9. The Pilots have also secured their first winning season since 1998-99, when the Pilots were 16-13 and advanced to the WNIT, Portland’s last post-season visit.
Saturday’s game marked the final regular season appearance at the Chiles Center for Portland’s five seniors. Karlie Burris, Carly Koebel, Allyson Sievers, Jennifer Wassom and Andrea Wujek were honored during a pre-game ceremony. All five seniors started for UP.
The Pilots got off to a sluggish start on senior day as the Broncos (3-26, 1-13 WCC) raced out to an 18-9 leads 12 minutes into the game. Moments later with the Pilots still trailing by seven, junior Laiken Dollente hit her first three-pointer of the afternoon. The trey sparked a 17-4 run by the Pilots to end the first half. Portland led 30-24 at the break.
The lead would grow to double digits early in the second half. After Dollente converted on a lay-up with a shake-and-bake move, the Pilots enjoyed their biggest lead at 39-29.
But the pesky Broncos refused to go away, pulling with four points with 10:57 left in the game. This time Portland responded with a jumper by sophomore Lauren Angel and a lay-up by freshman Alexis Gannis to push the lead back up to eight at 48-40.
The Pilots still couldn’t completely shake the Broncos, who only trailed 57-53 with 3:14 remaining. But a Sievers’ jumper and three missed Santa Clara three-point attempts later, and the Pilots were in control. Dollente added two free throws with 38 seconds left to give Portland the eight-point win.
Dollente hit four three-pointers, shot 6-for-11 overall and finished with a game-high 20 points. It’s the seventh time this season to score at least 20 points for Dollente, who also handed out five assists and had three steals.
Angel also reached double figures with 14 points. She grabbed a team-high six rebounds.
Santa Clara’s Lena Gipson matched Dollente with 20 points. Gipson also had 15 rebounds to help Santa Clara to a 37-31 edge in rebounding.
The Pilots made up for an off-night shooting by going 12 of 14 from the free throw line. Overall, Portland shot 37.5 percent (21-for-56) and hit seven three-pointers.
The Pilots matched a season low with 10 turnovers.
The Broncos were hampered by 18 miscues, which led to 20 points for the Pilots. SCU shot 38.5 percent (20-for-52) from the floor, hit six three-pointers and went 6-for-12 from the line.
Portland next heads to the conference tourney in Las Vegas. The four-day tournament begins on Friday March 6 and concludes on Monday, March 9. The No. 5 through No. 8 seeds will compete in Friday’s opening round to determine who will advance to the next round of the tournament. Waiting for the winners in the quarterfinals will be the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds, who will have first-round byes into Saturday’s games.
