Santa Clara @ Portland, Feb. 29th

A strong Bronco team comes to Chiles Thursday evening.  Game time is 6:00pm, meaning those traveling from the south fight rush hour traffic to get there in time for the pre-game Pilot Club meal.

SCU is 18-11, and 9-5 in WCC play.  They are led in scoring by 6'7" guard Adama Bal (wasn't he on BSG?), who scored 15 the last game against UP.  And they are big, starting 6'9", 6'10" and 7'0" players.  Their two starting bigs O'Neil and Tilly combined for 34 against GU last Saturday.  And they bring 7'1" Argentinian Franciso Caffaro off the bench.  I'll bet he can't wait for Juanse to switch onto him.  As a team they tend to play inside more than some, taking 39% of their shots from 3P range and making about 36% of them.  On the other hand, their 6'10" F O'Neil takes the most 3P shots for them.  Watch to see if they attack that obvious Pilot defensive weakness.  And they rebound the offensive board well, so hopefully the Pilots will have all their bigs available.

This game is an opportunity game.  A win would be a major step away from the poor results of this season.  T-Rob had 34 last game at SCU, but the Pilots need to have several players step up, hit 3s, rebound well, and play better defense.

I still recall how SCU stiffed us by refusing to play a game a few years ago, and also the very disrespectful attitude they showed after winning at Chiles the next year.  They have mostly different players now, but the same coach in Randy Bennett mini-me Herb Sendek.  Go Pilots.

Both are injured still.

Dean Murdoch wrote:I think a win tonight at least sets up a UP/LMU showdown for 7th place? Playing for something still, at least.

Confirmed.  Saturday is for 7th place.  And it is Senior Night.  Hope the guys have something left in their tanks.  Tyler played 45 minutes, Bol played 44 minutes, and Juanse played 40 minutes.

up7587 wrote:This game is an opportunity game.  A win would be a major step away from the poor results of this season.  T-Rob had 34 last game at SCU, but the Pilots need to have several players step up, hit 3s, rebound well, and play better defense.

Pre-game, Coach Legans said the keys were rebounds and defense.  The Pilots did both.  They were very active on defense, doubling down in the low post.  In January, 7 footer Tilly was 10-12 with 22 points.  He was 1-4, scored 2 points and got 3 rebounds.  7 footer sub Caffaro was 2-2 (once when Juanse was switched on him), and scored 4 points with 0 rebounds.  Amazing.  

The Pilots also got onto the 3P shooters fairly well.  Adama Bal got on a hot streak in the 2nd half to get them back into the game.  But otherwise the Pilots did well keeping a hand in their face.  The Pilots did not shoot great from 3P, but made some key 3s when it helped stall SCU's momentum.  And while they were adequate from the FT line at 15-22 (68%) with a missed front end 1&1, the 9 more FTs scored than SCU was a critical difference in the game.  T-Rob's 32 points were also critical, as the Pilots continually isolated him and SCU could not double team and force him to give up the ball.

Dean Murdoch wrote:They can never just make it easy....

In the last two minutes of regulation, Masic missed a dunk, Robertson missed a layup, and Gorosito missed the first of a 1&1 FT opportunity. No points.
In the last two minutes of overtime, Austin made a layup and the FT, Masic made a 3P, Gorosito made 1 of 2 FTs, and Masic made 1 of 2 FTs. Eight points.

SCU beat USF 69-62, with C. Tilly scoring 16.