UP80 - Pep 64 or Where was Mesa Night?

Portland 80, Pepperdine 64: Pilots guards Campbell, Stohl combine for 46 points, defense wears down Waves in second half

By Jim Beseda, The Oregonian

Nine minutes into Saturday’s first half, the Portland Pilots were still struggling to put the brakes on Pepperdine’s high-flying offense.

The Waves had hit their first seven shots from the field and there were those who wondered if the Pilots would ever find their stride at the defensive end.

Then came three consecutive Pepperdine possessions that ended with turnovers and the Pilots were off and running -– literally -- rolling to an 80-64 West Coast Conference victory before a crowd of 2,605 at the Chiles Center.

T.J. Campbell finished with a career-high 24 points, nine assists and five steals on his 22nd birthday, and Jared Stohl added 22 points to lift the Pilots (12-7, 3-2 WCC) to their second consecutive win.

The Waves (7-14, 3-2) jumped in front 24-18, but the Pilots scored 13 points off turnovers before halftime to take a 49-38 lead at the break. Pepperdine's Jonathan Dupree hit a three-pointer to open the second half, but the Pilots countered with a 10-3 run that pushed the lead to 59-44, and the Waves came no closer than 11 after that.

"It was kind of a shootout in the first half,” Campbell said. “Who was gong to get stops first? That’s what it came down to in the first half. Then we knew if we just kept playing the same way in the second half, they’d eventually cool off, and that’s what happened.

“One of our best assets is getting stops and getting out and running. That’s when we’re at our best.”

Anybody who has spent time around Pilots coach Eric Reveno knows about his penchant for defense. One of the primary tenets of Reveno’s coaching philosophy is that defense often is the deciding factor between winning and losing, while offense determines the margin of victory.

The Pilots were coming off one of their finest defensive efforts of all time Thursday, routing Loyola Marymount 79-39. The Lions shot 29.2 percent from the field, and of their 11 field goals, only three were scored from inside the three-point line.

They didn’t stymie Pepperdine the way they did the Lions, but they still put up some impressive defensive numbers against the Waves, including 24 points off 19 turnovers, nine steals, and a 31-29 edge in rebounds.

“I don’t think we were hitting on all cylinders defensively the whole first half, and there were some lapses in transition, but overall it was pretty good,” Reveno said. “Pepperdine scored at a pretty good rate in the first half, but I think that wore them down.

“It took a lot of effort on their part to score like that in the first half. In the second half, we got a little better defensively and they wore down a little bit and we took advantage of that.”

The big question going into Saturday's game had to do with how the Pilots would match up defensively with Pepperdine's Keion Bell, the 6-foot-3 sophomore guard who erupted for a career-high 37 points in Thursday's 91-84 loss to No. 15 Gonzaga in Spokane.

Normally, that would be Nik Raivio's job, but the senior guard missed his second consecutive game with a strained right Achilles’ tendon suffered in Tuesday’s practice, and that assignment fell to Stohl.

"I watched a lot of film on him and knew it was going to be a challenge,” Stohl said. “I tried my best.”

Bell hit his first two shots from three-point range and converted a three-point play that gave the Waves a 24-18 lead with 11:32 left in the half, but the WCC's second-leading scorer started to fade after that. By halftime, the momentum had clearly shifted in favor of Stohl, who finished the half with 19 points on 6 of 8 shooting from the field to Bell’s 15 points on 5 of 7 shooting.

Stohl’s fifth three-pointer of the game not only gave the Pilots a 44-36 lead with 1:23 to play in the half, but also moved him into second place on the school’s career three-pointer list with 201, one ahead of Pooh Jeter.

“Jared’s a great shooter and a very good basketball player,” Reveno said. “He was defending well, shooting the ball well, making good decisions, and getting in there and scrapping with the big guys.”

Bell had only six points in the second half and finished with a team-high 21 on 7 of 13 shooting. Taylor Darby added 13 points, and Tanner Kerry was the only other player in double figures for the Waves with 11.

-- Jim Beseda

3-point field goals made
1. 211 - Casey FRANDSEN (96 games) - 2000-04
2. 202 - Jared STOHL (81 games) - 2007-10
3. 200 - Pooh JETER (115 games) - 2002-06
4. 156 - Adam QUICK (114 games) - 2000-04
156 - Erik Spoelstra (112 games) - 1988-92
6. 140 - Darren COOPER (80 games) - 2004-07
140 - Jimmie Rainwater (111 games) - 1995-99
8. 136 - Chivo Anderson (109 games) - 1994-98
9. 131 - Matt Houle (110 games) - 1989-91,92-94
10. 123 - Travis Andrews (109 games) - 1997-01
11. 119 - Josh Lowery (50 games) - 1988-90
12. 113 - T.J. CAMPBELL (51 games) - 2008-10
13. 112 - Peter McKelvey (31 games) - 1991-93
14. 110 - Nik RAIVIO (79 games) - 2007-10
15. 104 - Ryan Jones (82 games) - 1998-01
16. 101 - Jason Franklin (71 games) - 1996-99
17. 86 - Karl AAKER (92 games) - 2000-05
18. 84 - Ron Deaton (112 games) - 1987-91
19. 81 - Robert Phillips (56 games) - 1986-88
20. 80 - Ethan NIEDERMEYER (103 games) - 2006-10
21. 74 - Kasey Flicker (89 games) - 1993-96
22. 72 - David Roth (47 games) - 1989-91
23. 60 - Taishi ITO (102 games) - 2006-10
24. 54 - Rick Brainard (87 games) - 1992-96
25. 52 - Ronnie Fines (74 games) - 1992-95
26. 51 - Greg Attaway (56 games) - 1985-87
27. 49 - Donald WILSON (114 games) - 2002-06
28. 43 - Ross Jorgusen (102 games) - 1998-02
29. 39 - Rodd Miller (73 games) - 1985-89
30. 36 - Sherrard WATSON (103 games) - 2004-08

MesaPilot1 wrote: Next yr I'm staying Jansen Beach or Vancover,WA,@#$#@ I would like to get a hold of the designer/engineer/planner who made up that loopy freeway system and bridge's from UP's Campus to Beaverton. I don't know about you but I've traveled in some wierd locales nd that downtown take 4 different freeway's to Beaverton route is right up there with

MesaPilot1 wrote:If anybody out there knows how to get a pic of Kramer's last Dunk(with his off hand no less) over Thompson from Pepperdine let me know or e mail it to me,or PM me. That was some wild dunk with he and the Pepperdine player ending tangled up under the basket. (I think he was actually parallell to the floor on the basket support) Oh well, I know basketballhead would enjoy a pic if you guys know where it could be obtained.

VillaGorilla wrote:

MesaPilot1 wrote:If anybody out there knows how to get a pic of Kramer's last Dunk(with his off hand no less) over Thompson from Pepperdine let me know or e mail it to me,or PM me. That was some wild dunk with he and the Pepperdine player ending tangled up under the basket. (I think he was actually parallell to the floor on the basket support) Oh well, I know basketballhead would enjoy a pic if you guys know where it could be obtained.

I'd love some video of that. Maybe included in the hopefully-forthcoming video highlights? As I'm sure Brian Wheeler would have called it, that was naaaaassstttyyyyy.

up7587 wrote:The editors must have known it was Mesa night, because I'm pretty sure they included every one of Kramer's baskets.

MesaPilot1 wrote: If anybody out there knows how to get a pic of Kramer's last Dunk(with his off hand no less) over Thompson from Pepperdine let me know or e mail it to me,or PM me. That was some wild dunk with he and the Pepperdine player ending tangled up under the basket. (I think he was actually parallell to the floor on the basket support) Oh well, I know basketballhead would enjoy a pic if you guys know where it could be obtained.