By Malika Andrews |
Senior Bryce Pressley rooted his feet to the Chiles Center floor seven minutes into Saturday’s game against BYU. As the whistle sounded to call a charge, head coach Eric Reveno roared. He crouched, dropping his clipboard and exploded up, pumping his fist and beating his chest. He raised his hands, as if to say to the predominantly BYU crowd, “This is our house.”
“I yelled a little bit, and it felt good, so I kept on going,” Reveno later said.
It was the Pilots’ house, as the crowd stormed the court to celebrate the end of a four-game losing streak for Portland. The Pilots held the Cougars to 38 percent shooting in the game to upset BYU 84-81.
The Pilots were coming off of a disappointing 82-71 loss to San Diego, a team that until facing Portland, had yet to win a game in conference. BYU was entering Chiles Center off of a one-point home win over No. 25 Gonzaga. The Cougars brought an enormous crowd.
With chants of “Let’s go Cougs” often drowning out the home crowd, Portland guards Alec Wintering, D’Marques Tyson and Pressley combined for 64 points and commanded attention from tip off.
The game came down to the wire in the second half. A right-wing three from Tyson with 1:06 left gave Portland a six-point advantage at 80-74. With the crowd on its feet, BYU’s Nick Emery sank a fade-away three from the corner with an outstretched hand in his face to bring the deficit to two with 22 seconds left.
The Pilots put the game away by sinking three free throws, two from Wintering and one by sophomore Jason Todd.
The question becomes: Will this be a turning point for Portland? After a recent rough patch, the Pilots looked dominant against a strong BYU team that had won 13 of the previous 15 meetings between the two teams.
The win over the Cougars was the most impressive of Portland’s season, and they’ll look to build some positive momentum from it.
The X-factor against BYU was Tyson. While Wintering has been consistent, averaging 18.1 points per game and topping 20 points five times in his last six games, Portland was in desperate need of a second scorer. Against BYU, Tyson poured in 21 points after going scoreless in the loss to San Diego. He shot 5-of-10 from behind the arc and 57 percent from the field overall.
Generally, Portland has relied on its perimeter attack, attempting 25.6 3-pointers per game. Against the Cougars, Portland did some damage inside as well, tallying 28 points in the paint. Jarrell Marshall, who scored 14 points combined during a recent four-game winning streak, rebounded to score 11 points against the Cougars.
“I definitely think this is a turning point,” freshman Jazz Johnson said. “We just have to play hard and be the team we were against BYU.”
Maintaining this type of scoring balance will be key to Portland’s continued success. The Pilots’ next test will be Thursday on the road against Pacific at 7 p.m.
Malika Andrews is the sports editor for The Beacon. She can be reached at andrewsm17@up.edu or on Twitter @malika_andrews.
