Portland Pilots – Part II

[LIONS90045]

Portland Pilots – Part II

We would catch the Pilots on a hot streak and winners of their latest three games: USF (69-57), Santa Clara (74-54) and Pepperdine (69-52) last Thursday. Before that, they lost to Gonzaga (64-46) by a slightly better margin than our latest loss.

Portland is 15-10 overall and 6-7 in WCC play, putting them 6th place in conference. SCU is 7th at 5-9 with USF and LMU next at 4-10.

We beat the Pilots convincingly one month ago in Gersten by 80-68. The Pilots had four players in double figures in that loss: Wintering 17, Gerun 12, Taylor 12 and Tyson 11. The Lions were led by Deji 22 and Mornar 21. Hayes contributed 9, Flint 7, Humphries 8, Godwin 5, Payne 7 (in 23 minutes), and Wyatt 1 in a balanced scoring evening.

This game will be a gut check for LMU and the Lions will be playing for their pride (no pun intended) after our latest two whippings. Will this team show some gusto and give the Pilots a good game and a possible upset? Or will this demoralizing season finally take its toll on the guys? I think we are good and aren’t quitters and will surprise some Pilots fans. On the other hand, given their earlier loss to the Lions, the Pilots will be out for revenge on their home court and trying to protect their place in the standings. Should be a good game on Saturday.

Go Lions!

Gametime: Saturday, Feb 14 (Happy Valentine’s Day), 7 pm in Portland.
TV: TWCSN?Root/CSN, The W.tv (out of area)

[ALioninWinter]

The Pilots seem to be fairly healthy and are still upset with the way they played at Gersten. The Lions are going to have a tough game.

[LIONS90045]

Husky where's your forecast for tonight? You had the right call on the Gonzaga game.

[slblions08]

Feb 14, 2015 20:46:37 GMT -5 LIONS90045 said:

Husky where's your forecast for tonight? You had the right call on the Gonzaga game.

I peg the next three to be winnable games. I'd like us to at least win two and finish 6-12 with 10 wins on the year. Anything less I'd consider a disappointment. I'd also consider it a great success.

Winning tonight would be a big step in the right direction,

[ALioninWinter]

Well, the Lions ... No. Strike that. EVAN made the game close.

I know CMD is trying to develop a team, but at what cost? The Lions are getting thumped using the "team" approach; then Evan is finally given the ball late in the game and almost pulls out a victory.

I agree that a team approach is better, IF you have the horses to make a team. If you don't have the horses but do have a scoring machine at your service ....................

[husky]

Sorry I was unable to post a forecast. I did pick us to beat the spread which looked like a lost cause until that darn Payne went and acted like a star scoring something like 12 points in less than 2 minutes. Until those last minutes Evan had been totally out of sync but once he warmed up was our Evan again. I am not among those that think we are a better team without him; when we appear to do better it is in spite of his not being on the court not because of it.

[ALioninWinter]

Husky - I believe it was 14 points in 53 swconds

[LIONS90045]

I'm with you Winter
Given the squad we have now, I don't see why Evan isn't playing 35 minutes per game or more.
He is the last guy our opponents want to see out there.

Regarding the overall game, it looked like we match up pretty well vs the Pilots. The main difference was they made their shots while we did not. Some games we do shoot better but not last evening

We did beat the spread and if we happen to play the Pilots again this season, it will be interesting (if Dunlap wizens up)