PORTLAND, Ore. – As
Jimbo Lull turned to run back up court, he turned to the sideline and shrugged his shoulders.
Lull — San Francisco's seven-foot senior center — had just gotten the Dons to within one with his second 3-pointer of the game.
On a night where Portland held San Francisco's top two scorers in check with tenacious defense, Lull had to be the Dons' offensive powerhouse. Lull's 20 points on a season-high-tying nine field goals, though, were not enough, as the Pilots — riding a high after taking No. 1 Gonzaga to the brink earlier this week — were able to deal San Francisco a 76-65 road loss.
"Playing at Portland is always tough," said head coach
Todd Golden. "They haven't been the best team the last couple years, but it's always a really tough place to play. Bottom line is, you can't dig yourself in a hole."
The Pilots held San Francisco to 10-of-30 from the field in the first half, with 18 of those shots coming outside the arc. The Dons — second in the nation in 3-point shots, and third in 3-point makes — hit only four before the break, and trailed 32-26 going into the locker room. Leading scorers
Charles Minlend and point guard
Jamaree Bouyea (both averaging 14.4 points per game) went scoreless on 0-for-5 shooting, and Bouyea turning the ball over five times.
"I thought Charles was playing a good floor game, driving, and they were really helping on penetration," Golden said. "He was doing a good job sharing the ball, trying to find other guys shots, and Jameree, he just wasn't strong enough with the ball. He was a little too casual, and I think he was getting a little fatigued. We need other people to step up so he doesn't have to shoulder so much of the load."
Lull banged home seven straight points out of the half to give San Francisco the lead, but he soon was called for his third and fourth fouls in the first eight minutes, the third coming as he tried to take a charge by center Theo Akwuba.
"When Jimbo's in the game, we're fine, but when we go to our bench and have to find somebody else to play inside, Josh [Kunen] has been better, but the other guys, they need to play a lot better," Golden said. "That's the bottom line."
The Dons had largely corrected their issues from the last several games, out-rebounding Portland 34-28, getting 12 second-chance points on 13 offensive rebounds and getting a solid 12 points from the bench.
Only two of those bench points, though, came after the half, when Lull had to take a seat thanks to foul trouble. Minlend — who went scoreless over the first 19 minutes — scored 15 in the final 11, but the rest of the Dons took just six shots in that stretch.
San Francisco (11-6, 0-2 in WCC) couldn't overcome a pesky, opportunistic Pilots defense, which scored 12 points on 19 total turnovers (nine in the second half). Portland held San Francisco to 25-of-49 (42.4%) from the field and 9-of-28 (32.1%) from 3-point range, well below their season averages of 44.7% and 35.1%.
The defeat snapped the Dons' eight-game winning streak over Portland (9-8,1-1), and a string of nine straight wins at the Chiles Center, made all the more frustrating given that the Pilots lost star grad transfer Isaiah White to the flu.
"We played well at the start of the second half, but it was too little, too late," Golden said. "We didn't have enough to finish the job."
The Dons return to action on Thursday when they host rival Santa Clara at 8:00 p.m. The game will be televised on NBC Sports Bay Area. Tickets are available at USFDons.com/tickets
