Sal Aversa |
The Pilots fought hard, but a late jumper from St. Mary's Joe Rahon gave the Gaels the edge they needed to walk away with a win. Portland fell to St. Mary's 74-72 in the Chiles Center on Thursday night.
With the loss, the Pilots drop to 5-10 in West Coast Conference play and 11-17 overall, while the Gaels improve their record to 12-3 in the WCC and 21-4 overall.
Portland changed their starting lineup inserting freshman guard Jazz Johnson for his first career start.
Emmett Naar led the Gaels with 18 points.
Senior guard Bryce Pressley led the Pilots with 25 points on 11-of-15 shooting from the field. Alec Wintering added 18 points and Gabe Taylor contributed 12 points of his own.
“I felt good in shoot around today and in practice this week, but I really wanted to get that win,” Pressley said.
The game was close throughout with 19 tied scores and 16 lead changes. Portland trailed 40-36 at the half. Pilots guard Alec Wintering missed a half court shot that would have won the game.
The Pilots went on a 12-2 run in the second half that was highlighted by a corner 3-pointer by D’Marques Tyson that brought everyone in the Chiles Center to their feet. St. Mary’s called a timeout to silence the crowd.
The Gaels tied the game back up at 63 off of a 3-point play by St. Mary's Calvin Hermanson and then gained a 72-70 advantage off of a layup by Dane Pineau with less than a minute remaining.
Gabe Taylor tied the game off a pair of free throws before St. Mary's took the game by two when Winterings' half court attempt went long.
With his 25-point performance, Pressley became the 39th Pilot in school history to record 1,000 points.
“He was fantastic. They were trying to guard him and he just kept making plays,” Reveno said about Pressley tonight.
Up next, the Pilots host the Pacific Tigers on Saturday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. in for senior night.
Sal Aversa is a sports writer for The Beacon. He can be reached at aversa17@up.edu or on Twitter @Sal_Aversa.
