PORTLAND, Ore. –
The San Diego Toreros secured fifth-place in the West Coast Conference standings with a 78-66 victory over the Portland Pilots Saturday afternoon at the Chiles Center. Portland will now await other results to determine if the Pilots will be the No. 6 seed for the WCC Championships and receive a bye to the quarterfinals, or if they will be the No. 7 seed and play in the opening round on Friday night.The Pilots (16-14, 7-11 WCC) will earn the No. 6 seed and face No. 3 BYU on Saturday if either Pacific defeats San Francisco or Santa Clara beats Saint Mary's tonight. If neither occurs, the Pilots will open the tournament on Friday at 8 p.m. against the No. 10 seed.
Saturday's game looked good early for Portland as the home team built an eight-point lead late in the first half on a steal and layup by Alec Wintering. The Toreros (15-15, 8-10) closed the half with a 12-4 run highlighted by eight points from reserve Cameron Neubauer – including a baseline fall away at the buzzer to tie the game at 31-31.
San Diego carried the momentum into the second half and scored the first five points of the period. The Toreros would extend the margin to double digits midway through the half and never relinquished the lead.
The Pilots struggled to 36 percent shooting from the field in the second period, while San Diego was 60 percent after the break.
For the game the Torero bench outscored the Pilots by a 44-6 margin. San Diego also controlled the rebounding battle with a 37-26 edge, including 12 offensive rebounds that led to a 17-5 second chance points advantage.
Kevin Bailey finished with a game-high 23 points for Portland, while Wintering added 20 points, five assists, five rebounds and three steals.
All 12 Toreros that earned minutes scored in a balanced attack. Senior guard Johnny Dee had a team-high 12 points, while Neubauer and Vasa Pusica added 10 each.
Portland recognized its six graduating seniors with a pregame ceremony: Bailey, Thomas van der Mars, Volodymyr Gerun, Bobby Sharp, Riley Barker and David Carr.