Box Score
PORTLAND, Ore. – The San Francisco women's basketball team gave its fans a game to remember as the team held on for the 75-71 win at Portland's Chiles Center on Valentine's Day.
With the victory, the Dons move to 10-15 on the season and 3-9 in the West Coast Conference. This is the first 10-win season for USF since the 2007-08 campaign. USF's season sweep of the Pilots is the first for the Dons since taking two from Loyola Marymount in 2008-09.
“In the end, it comes down to working hard to accomplish the little things and when you do that, you get results. You get wins,” head coach
Jennifer Azzi said. “It was a total team effort and I am so proud that even though we've been through some adversity, we can come together like this and get a win. I really think the team became more of a team tonight out there on the floor.”
USF's total team effort resulted in four double-digit scorers as senior
Mel Khlok finished with a game-high 23 points and four made 3-pointers. She added 10 rebounds for her second career double-double and narrowly missed the triple-double with eight assists in the game.
“I was just playing basketball,” Khlok said of her stellar overall performance. “Coach has just been telling me that I need to relax and just play ball and everything else will come. And I think today I just let loose – and everything came.”
Taylor Proctor added 19 points and 13 rebounds, including eight on the offensive glass. This marks the freshman's second career double-double. Zhane Dikes' 14 points and
Taj Winston's 12 rounded out the double-digit scorers in the win.
Despite owning a double-digit advantage for much of the contest, the outcome of the game wasn't decided until the final ticks ran off the clock. USF held a nine-point lead with 3:13 to play after Khlok drained two from the line. With just under two minutes to play Portland's Amy Pupa made an athletic move to the basket and converted the three-point play to put the score at 67-62 in favor of the Dons.
Pupa whittled the USF lead down to three after hitting the front end of a one-and-one with 28.2 seconds to play. After missing her second attempt at the line, Khlok pulled down the timely rebound and converted on her free throws.
But the Pilots weren't finished putting a scare into the Dons, whose only trailing moment came after Portland earned the first points of the game. Annika Holopainen's putback with 14.9 seconds remaining made it a one possession game. After grabbing the steal on the inbounds play, Holopainen had a chance to tie it, but her jumper rimmed out and the Dons earned the defensive rebound. After another successful trip to the line by Khlok USF escaped with the 75-71 win.
“Our defense was a little sloppy at the end, but we had to come up with the big rebounds, big steals, big plays at the end of the game,” Proctor said. “I think we kept our composure pretty well – got kind of lucky on the last board, but kept our composure. That's when Mel put in her free throws, and that's how we won.”
Portland's Pupa put the Pilots on the board first, USF rattled off the next 12 points in the game to open up a 10-point lead with 15:08 to play. The Dons got its largest lead of the night when Oregon native
Alicia Scafidi scooped up a steal and got the ball to Khlok, who then dished it off to Proctor for the layup to make the score 16-5 with 12:46 left in the first half.
After starting off the half without a blemish in the turnover column, a rash of three USF miscues was started by a charge called on Proctor with 10:41 to play in the period. That play started a 12-1 Portland run as the Pilots evened the score at 22-22.
The Dons answered with a 12-2 run of its own to grow the lead back to double-digits late in the half. Proctor benefited from Khlok assist of the evening to put the score at 35-24 with 1:35 to play in the period.The Dons held the 37-29 halftime advantage after shooting 42.1 percent from the field in the first and USF continued its solid shooting effort by hitting 41.3 percent of its shots.
Despite season-long struggles from the line, the Dons were a sweltering 18-of-22 from the stripe in the game, which included hitting 16-of-18 free throws in the second half. The Dons won the battle of the boards 46-41, the first time the team has outrebounded its opponent since the first meeting between USF and Portland on Jan. 12. Along with the double-doubles from Proctor and Khlok, Scafidi, hailing from Gresham, Ore., added 12 rebounds for the Dons in the victory.
“I think that's a big part of why we won. When you grab the boards the game goes in your favor and you win,” Scafidi said. “Also, the free throws had a big impact – especially down the stretch – that's a game changer.
“It was really nice to get a win, especially in a familiar setting for me with friends and family in the stands. At the end of the day we're here to play basketball and we're here on a business trip to get the win. Even though it was close, we came out with the win.”
The swing through the Pacific Northwest continues for the Dons on Saturday, as the team prepares to face off with league-leading Gonzaga at 2 p.m.
