Box Score I 2010 WCC Tournament Bracket (pdf)
SANTA CLARA, Calif. --- It wasn’t easy, but the Portland Pilots finally prevailed over the Santa Clara Broncos 67-64 in the West Coast Conference season finale for both teams at the Leavey Center on Saturday afternoon. The win, coupled with San Diego's loss at Pepperdine on Saturday night, gives Portland the No. 4 seed and a first-round bye at the WCC Tournament next week in Las Vegas, Nev.
The No. 4 Pilots will play the winner of the first-round game between the No. 5 seed San Diego and eighth-seeded Santa Clara, who will play on Friday, March 5 at the Orleans Arena. Portland's quarterfinal game is set for 12:00 p.m. on Saturday
The Pilots end the regular season with an 18-11 overall record and an even 7-7 mark in the WCC. The Broncos finish 3-26 and 1-13 in the conference.
The Pilots led by six at the half and built a nine-point lead mid-way through the second half. But the Broncos refused to give in, with the result being in doubt until the closing seconds. It appeared UP sophomore Natalie Day gave Portland a big boost with a three-pointer to make it a four-point lead with 1:02 left. At the other end, SCU’s Alyssa Shoji answered with a fall away three to pull the Broncos within 62-61 with only 51 seconds to play.
Portland then got a huge offensive board after a miss, forcing the Broncos to foul with :31 to play. Portland senior Laiken Dollente then knocked down both free throws to push the lead to three.
At the other end, the Pilots forced a Santa Clara miss, with Portland sophomore ReZina TecleMariam claiming a clutch defensive board. SCU then sent Z to the line, where she hit one of two to make it a five-point Portland lead. Maggie Goldenberger then missed with nine seconds showing, Dollente followed with a long pass to junior Tara Cronin, who hit the break-away lay-up for the dagger with only two seconds left. SCU hit a three at the buzzer.
Dollente finished with 21 points to lead all scorers in her final regular season game as a Pilot. Cronin had 17 points and Day registered 11 big points off of the bench. Sophomore Alexis Gannis had a team-high seven boards to help Portland to a 39-37 edge in rebounds.
Lena Gipson led SCU with 12 points and 12 boards. Shoji had a team-high 16.
The first half was a bit of a struggle for the Pilots, as the Broncos came out on fire. Santa Clara hit its first five shots of the game and opened an 11-2 lead not even three minutes into the game. The deficit was still nine moments later when the Pilots responded to tie the score at 19-19 when Cronin hit a jumper.
The Broncos, though, answered the answer with seven straight points before Portland would end the half on a 19-6 run. Dollente scored 10 points during the spurt as the Pilots would tie the game and eventually take a 38-32 lead into the locker room. Dollente led all scorers at the half with 17 points.
UP shot just 31.0 percent in the second half and 39.0 percent for the game. The Pilots hit four three’s and went 17 of 24 from the line. Dollente hit all nine of her free throw attempts.
Santa Clara hit 42.4 percent of its shots, made seven three-pointers and was seven of 11 from the charity stripe.
