Pilots vs. USD Saturday @ 5 and vs. BYU Monday @ 7

The Pilots open WCC play at home starting today (Saturday) against San Diego and BYU, the two teams that are probably among the top 3 teams in the WCC, the other being next Saturday's opponent, Gonzaga.

UP ended its preseason with a very disappointing 2-9 record, with wins over Utah and Portland St, but USD comes into the game with a 9-1 record, while after a slow start, BYU ran off 5 straight wins for a 8-3 mark.

UP has a fine core of seniors, and they are able to score, and under a new coaching staff they are more aggressive, but they just can't seem to keep from turning the ball over to their opponent.  In the team's final preseason game against Boise St. the Pilots shot in excess of 50% but turned it over a previously inconceivable 30 times!

Prediction: USD and BYU will be in the top 4 in Las Vegas....UP will have to quickly improve to avoid the 9th or 10th position.  Regardless, UP will play on Thursday, March 5th in Las Vegas as only the top 2 teams wait until Friday to play, and those 2 teams could easily be USD and BYU.

Final:  USD 87 UP 65.

The Pilots played USD pretty evenly in most respects this evening except the most important one.....shooting!

Not free-throw shooting, it was excellent, 20-23, but USD's harassing defense seemed to really rattle the UP shooters who shot only 21-60.

UP was aggressive, but USD was just more talented.

UP's Cassandra Brown led all scorers with 23, but USD countered with 5 players in double figures and the game was really never close after the first 5 minutes.

UP's Cassandra Thompson had a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Final: BYU 83 UP 79.

Very disappointing loss....UP was ahead the entire second half against a highly favored opponent, but BYU went on a 10-0 run to close out the game.

Apparently the Pilots thought they had the game won and attempted to run the clock instead of continuing to be aggressive down the stretch....and a very good Cougar team went for their throats.

Poor decisions and weak shooting in the final 4 minutes did them in!