SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Portland senior Bryce Pressley scored a career-high 37 points, but San Diego's Duda Sanadze countered with 38 points to lead the Toreros to an 85-76 victory Saturday night at Jenny Craig Pavilion. Portland concludes the regular season with a 12-19 overall record and 6-12 West Coast Conference mark.
The Pilots will enter next week's WCC Tournament as the No. 7 seed and face No. 2 seed Gonzaga in Saturday's quarterfinals. Tip-off will be 9 p.m. and the game will be televised live on ESPN2.
Sanadze was spectacular once again versus Portland on Saturday. Earlier this season he led San Diego to a road victory over the Pilots with a career-high 29 points. He bettered that performance on his Senior Day by setting a Toreros single-game Division I scoring record.
Pressley was equally stellar, finishing the night 12-for-19 from the field, 4-of-6 from three-point range and 9-of-11 at the free throw line.
San Diego led by 15 with 12:28 remaining in regulation, but the Pilots used a 16-4 run over the next five minutes to make it a one possession game. Sanadze answered with a four-point play and the Toreros would push the margin back to double figures. The Pilots would mount one final run to cut the deficit to seven with less than two minutes remaining, but Sanadze would ice the game with free throws.
Portland junior Alec Wintering struggled to a 2-for-13 night from the field while battling the flu. He did make 13-of-15 free throws and finished with 17 points. Freshman guard Jazz Johnson reached double figures for the second straight game with 10 off the bench.
Sophomore guard Vasa Pusica had 13 points, 11 rebounds and six assists off the bench for the Toreros (9-20, 4-14).
The Toreros entered the game as the worst offensive team in the WCC in scoring, field goal percentage and three-point percentage, but caught fire early on Saturday. Sanadze drilled his first five field goal attempts as San Diego jumped out to an early double digit lead. San Diego finished the game 48 percent overall and made 14-of-26 three-pointers.
Portland struggled to 35 percent from the field and 6-of-20 from three-point range. Free throws kept the Pilots in the game as Portland finished 32-of-39 at the charity stripe.