Box Score I Complete WCC Bracket
PORTLAND, Ore. --- Portland junior Natalie Day registered yet another double-double with 19 points and 14 rebounds, but the Saint Mary’s Gaels would prevail 62-52 over the Pilots on senior day at the Chiles Center on Saturday afternoon. The Gaels overcame a double-digit second-half deficit en route to the victory in the West Coast Conference regular season finale for both teams.
The loss drops the Pilots to 15-14 overall and to 6-8 in the WCC. Portland ends the season in a tie for fourth place in the conference with Santa Clara, but the Pilots are awarded the No. 4 seed at next week’s league tournament based on the tie-breaker.
The Pilots will receive a bye into the second round of the WCC Championships at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. The Pilots will play their first game at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday when they face the winner of a first-round game between No. 5 Santa Clara and No. 8 San Francisco, who square off on Friday.
Saint Mary’s claims the No. 2 seed as the Gaels wrap-up the regular season 18-11 and 10-4.
Portland led 27-25 at the break and would build a double-digit lead five minutes into the second half. With 14:39 remaining, Day finished off a fast break with a lay-in on a feed from senior Tara Cronin that made it 42-31 in favor of Portland.
But UP would score just ten more points the rest of the way, allowing the Gaels to embark on a lengthy 31-10 run to end the game.
Day records her fifth double-double during her last six games and her seventh overall on the season. Cronin was the only other Pilot in double figures with 13 points.
Jasmine Smith and Alex Carbonel each scored 20 points for Saint Mary’s, while Louella Tomlinson added a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
It was a struggle from the field all day long for the Pilots, who shot just 30.9 percent (21-for-68). Portland also connected on seven three-pointers out of 32 attempts.
SMC shot 38.6 percent (22-for-57) overall, hit five three’s and went 13-for-23 at the line. The Pilots were 3-for-5 on free throws.
Saturday marked the final regular season home game for Portland’s four seniors. Lauren Angel, Jessica Clemens, Cronin and Egle Karolyte were honored with a pre-game ceremony. Cronin enters the WCC Championships just seven points shy of becoming the 19th player in program history to score 1,000 career points.
