| 18 February 2011
With only three games remaining before the WCC Tournament, the Portland Pilots are officially in a mini-slump. Suffering an 82-73 loss last night to the San Francisco Dons, the Pilots have now dropped three of their last four, and are starting to develop a bad habit of struggling to close out games.
After the loss, Coach Eric Reveno was disappointed, but also proud of the fight his players displayed.
“To me it looked like two teams that were battling and scrapping. I’ve seen [San Francisco] play a little better and I’ve seen us play a little better," said Reveno. "We were fighting and putting ourselves in a position and we just needed one of those plays at that key moment to go our way. We just couldn’t get over the hump.
“Gosh, it’s just disappointing because we’re not playing as well as we’re capable of playing."
The Pilots were outrebounded, outworked in the paint, and were never able to establish an offensive rhythm. The one exception was the standout play of junior guard Nemanja Mitrovic, who finished with a career-high 26 points. Senior Luke Sikma also set an impressive achievement by passing the 1000-point career mark in the contest, but was only able to contribute 6 points against the physical defenders on San Francisco’s side of the ball. Additionally, Sikma’s starting frontcourt partner, Kramer Knutson, was forced to leave the game early with back spasms and never returned.
Losing Kramer certainly hurt, and Reveno echoed that sentiment after the game by stressing how much Knutson means to the defense of the Pilots.
“That’s where he’s best. He’s just so experienced, in terms of rotations and talking and taking a charge versus a block. He does a really good job.”
Knutson’s not the only Pilot that’s ailing, however. It’s late in the season and the whole team is either exhausted or ill and desperately needs some time to heal up before getting back to playing a high-level of competitive basketball again.
“We look literally sick and tired,” said Reveno. “I think we need to heal up a little bit. These guys work really hard . . . we need to rest up, get some ice on joints and on our egos and our confidence, and get back out there.”
The Dons carried a 5-point lead into halftime and eventually extended that lead into 9 as the final buzzer sounded. A critical component to the game for Portland was turnovers. They accumulated 12 of them by the game’s end, which led to 16 points for San Francisco. Alternatively, the Pilots only scored 5 points off of turnovers.
There were also a couple of questionable calls near the end of regulation that had practically everyone in the building riled up and on their feet. One particular controversial blocking call made against the Pilots late in the game was especially heartbreaking. At that point, the score was still close at 69-67, with the advantage going to the Dons. Two and a half minutes later, the game was over, having ended with a 13-6 run for San Francisco. Although that call didn’t determine the outcome of the game, it certainly appeared to have affected the momentum.
When Reveno was asked about the play afterwards and if he thought it should have been a charge, Reveno chuckled and slyly responded with, “You can go ahead and say what you think. As [my old Coach Mike Montgomery] used to say, ‘If you think that, write that.’ But you won’t get me to say it.”
Although the Pilots have been struggling as of late, it’s still possible the team could move up to fourth in the WCC by winning their remaining three games against Santa Clara, San Diego, and Saint Mary’s. The Pilots have already beaten Saint Mary’s once this year, putting a blemish on an otherwise perfect WCC season of the Gaels, but a second win will be very tough to come by.
If Portland can rest up and get healthy, this is a team that can beat anyone in the conference. And the person responsible for most of the team’s success this year has been none other than Luke Sikma. Coach Reveno heaped praise upon Sikma after the game, making it abundantly clear how much the team needs him night in and night out.
“Luke Sikma’s just been phenomenal. To ask him to put every game on his shoulders and ask him to make every single play for us to win the game is asking a lot of him. Him and [Nemanja] were both very sick last week and they battled through that and played. We just lean on him so much to make so many plays. He’s done such a great job . He’s torn up about [the loss]. There’s not much else he can do. He’s done everything.”
The whole team is going to need to step up on Saturday against Santa Clara. The Broncos are only one game ahead in the standings, setting up this final home game of the season as an absolute must-watch matchup.
The Pilots know it’s a game they can win. They just need to stay focused and continue playing hard WCC basketball like they’ve been doing all season. Reveno made it sound so simple.
“We just got to get back to playing our ways and just get after it.“
photo: portlandpilots.com
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