University of San Francisco Athletics

Box Score
SAN FRANCISCO – After a back-and-forth battle that finished with a surge from Portland, the San Francisco women's basketball team fell to the visiting Pilots 82-72 on Sunday afternoon at War Memorial Gym.

USF's scoring was led by Taylor Proctor's double-double of 21 points and 11 rebounds. This game marks the fourth 20-point performance in 2014 for the sophomore from Colorado Springs, Colo. Through the first three weeks of January, Proctor is averaging 19.5 points and 8.2 rebounds a game. Her .527 field goal percentage in January's six contests leads the team.

Zhané Dikes and Rachel Howard added 11 points apiece and three Dons – Proctor, Taj Winston and Alexa Hardick – contributed three assists each. USF won the battle of the boards 42-39 and outshot the Pilots 44.4 to 35.4 percent from the field.

But the difference could be seen in two key areas – the Dons committed 17 turnovers which led to 17 points for the visitors, and the Pilots were an effective 25-of-28 from the free throw line.

Paige Spietz got the USF scoring going with a baseline jumper to open the game. Portland, who missed its first five attempts from the field, earned its first field goal with 16:33 remaining in the half. Cassandra Thompson's jumper put the score at 6-4 in favor of USF.  

The Dons continued to keep the lead through the next four minutes of the game until Kari Luttinen's 3-pointer with 12:07 put the score at 11 apiece, the game's first tie. The two teams were knotted again with the score at 17 and 23 points.

At that point, the Pilots edged to the lead and held a five-point advantage with under a minute remaining in the first half of action. Taylor Proctor found Claudia Price under the basket with 30.5 seconds on the clock. Price powered in the layup and was hacked in the act, and the freshman from Mesquite, Texas, converted the three-point play.

After a missed field goal attempt by the Pilots, Dikes drained a bucket at the halftime buzzer to tie the game at 32-32 heading into the break. All told, the game was tied five times and the two teams exchanged the lead on 11 occasions.

The see-saw game saw the Dons regain the advantage to begin the second period, as USF extended the lead to seven points when Taj Winston found Taylor Proctor for the layup with 12:14 left to play. With USF on top 51-44, the Pilots regrouped to score the next 12 points to take the lead. Two straight threes by Luttinen capped the run and gave the Pilots the 56-51 advantage, which was never relinquished.

The Dons pulled within two as Howard dished to Price for a jumper with 5:59 to play and the score at 65-63, but the USF offense stalled as Portland went on another big 14-point run. The Pilots took their largest lead of the game after stealing the ball from the Dons on the inbounds play. Luttinen grabbed the ball and layed it up and in to take a 79-63 lead with 3:04 remaining on the clock.  

The Dons played to the final buzzer, going on a 9-3 scoring run of their own in the final three minutes before USF took the 10-point loss, its fourth in a row. The Pilots improve to 10-8 on the season (3-4 WCC) while USF slides to 7-11 (2-5 WCC).

The Dons now hit the road for four straight games, beginning with a trip to BYU. Interestingly, USF has fared much better on the season on the road, where the Dons hold a 6-4 record away from the Hilltop. The Dons and the Cougars are slated to tip Thursday at 6 p.m. PT.