Box Score
LAS VEGAS, Nev. --- After trailing by five at the half, the Santa Clara Broncos used a big second-half run to defeat the Portland Pilots 74-61 in the quarterfinals of the West Coast Conference Championships at the Orleans Arena on Saturday afternoon. The Pilots end the year with an 18-12 overall record and register the most wins in a season since the 1997-98 campaign.
It’s also the fifth time for the Pilots to win at least 18 games in program history.
But the Pilots most definitely didn’t see their season ending like this, especially after building a nine-point lead at 41-32 two minutes into the second half. That’s when Santa Clara embarked on an epic run, eventually taking the lead and cruising to the double digit win.
After sophomore ReZina TecleMariam hit a tough lay-up to make it a 45-42 game in Portland’s favor with 13:50 to play, the Pilots went ice cold from the field and endured a stretch of more than nine minutes without a field goal. The Broncos capitalized with a 20-6 run to take control of the game. Portland’s only points during the stretch came from the free throw line and sophomore wing Natalie Day finally ended the drought with a jumper with less than five minutes to play.
But the damage had been done as Day’s jumper only pulled Portland within 11 at 62-51. The Broncos lead would grow to 18 as the run would stretch to 30-9 before the final buzzer.
“Give Santa Clara all the credit in the world,” Portland head coach Jim Sollars said following the loss. “They just out-scrapped us in the second half. We needed to do a better job defensively and we didn’t shoot well. That’s a recipe for defeat.”
Santa Clara’s Lena Gipson gave the Pilots trouble all day long as the junior post finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds.
“They did a great job of getting Gipson the ball and she knew what to do with it,” noted Sollars. “Friday’s win over San Diego gave Santa Clara a big boost of confidence.”
“Every time we play them they play us tough,” said UP senior guard Laiken Dollente. “It’s disappointing that we lost to team that we’ve beaten twice this season. They seemed to want it more and we just couldn’t seem to get that one bucket to get us going in the second half.”
Dollente finishes her career as one of the most decorated players in UP history. She finishes as the No. 3 scorer all-time with 1,863 career points and she’s at or near the top of several statistical categories.
She led the Pilots on Saturday with 23 points.
Santa Clara outscored Portland 43-25 in the second half as the Pilots shot just 8-for-23 (24.2 percent) after the break. UP finished at 34.4 percent (22-for-64) for the game and went 3-for-16 from downtown and 14-for-17 from the line.
The Broncos, who are now 5-26 on the season and advance to face regular season conference champ Gonzaga on Sunday, shot a blistering 51.6 percent in the second half and 43.9 percent (29-for-66) for the game. SCU went just 4-for-15 on three-pointers and hit 12 of 15 free throws.
Alyssa Shoji (15), Telisha Anderson (13), Ashley Armstrong (13) and Maggie Goldenberger joined Gipson in double figures for the Broncos, who won the battle of the boards 48-33. Santa Clara also owned a 40-24 advantage in points in the paint.
Day scored 12 points off the bench for Portland, while junior guard Tara Cronin overcame an ankle injury to net 10. Day was also UP’s top rebounder with seven.
The first half was back-and-forth as the two teams exchanged the lead a couple of times. Dollente led all scorers with 16 points in the first half to help the Pilots enter the locker room with a 36-31 lead.
The Pilots finished with a season low in turnovers with seven.
Portland entered the game as the tourney’s No. 4 seed, while Santa Clara was the eighth seed. The Pilots received a bye past the first round, while the Broncos upset San Diego on Friday.
