Box Score
LOS ANGELES, Calif. --- The Portland Pilots put forth a dominating effort in a 71-48 road win against the Loyola Marymount Lions on Saturday afternoon in West Coast Conference action at Gersten Pavilion. Senior forward Luke Sikma picked up his league-leading 12th double-double with 21 points and 13 rebounds, while junior guard Nemanja Mitrovic added 16 points and seven rebounds.
Portland (18-8, 5-5 WCC) earned the season sweep over the Lions (9-17, 1-10) and picked up the largest margin of victory this season. LMU was held to 31 percent shooting from the field for the game and the 48 points allowed was the second lowest total allowed by the Pilots this season. A total of 11 Pilots scored in the ball game.
Sikma, who became Portland’s all-time leader in rebounds on Thursday at Pepperdine, is now three points shy of 1,000 for his career.
LMU led by a 2-0 margin out of the gates, but it was short-lived as Portland quickly took the lead back and never relinquished the lead thereafter. Sikma and Mitrovic scored 11 each in the first half as the Pilots led by as much as 18 points late in the period before Larry Davis made consecutive threes to pull LMU within 36-24 at the half.
The Pilots opened the second half with a 9-1 run to push the margin to 20. The lead would grow to as much as 28 points late in regulation as Portland was able to cycle in lots of players in the closing minutes.
Portland finished the game by shooting 47 percent from the field, although struggled to 4-of-16 shooting from the three-point line. The Pilots gained a 43-34 rebounding advantage and a 32-16 margin in points in the paint.
Portland will return to the Chiles Center for its final two regular season home games next week, including Senior Night on Saturday. The Pilots will host second place San Francisco on Thursday at 6 p.m. in a nationally televised game on ESPNU. Santa Clara will visit on Saturday with a 5:30 p.m. tipoff live on CSN Northwest. Ten minutes prior to Saturday’s game will be a Senior Night ceremony recognizing Portland’s four seniors. Tickets are still available for both games through all Ticketmaster outlets or at the door 90 minutes prior to tipoff.
