Saint Mary’s up on Portland
Second-seeded Saint Mary’s holds a 37-26 lead over No. 3 Portland as it looks to force a matchup of the top two seeds in the West Coast Conference tournament at the Orleans.
The winner of this semifinal will play top-seeded Gonzaga tomorrow night.
Omar Sanham, the top scorer and rebounded in the league, already has 10 points and nine rebound for Saint Mary’s.
Mickey McConnell has nine points and four assists for a Gaels squad that hit 4 of 8 from 3-point range.
T.J. Campbell has seven points for the Pilots, who made just 10 of 28 field-goal attempts.
Foul trouble
Starter Matthew Dellavedova, who went 2-for-4 from the 3-point line for Saint Mary’s, picked up his third foul in the final minute of the first half.
It was surprising to see him in the game at that point with two fouls already.
The Gaels are not a very deep team, so they could be in trouble if Dellavedova can’t avoid picking up another foul early in the half.
Losing his cool
Portland coach Eric Reveno picked up a technical foul in the first half after a call went his way.
Reveno was still angry about a non-call he felt should have gone against Saint Mary’s star Omar Samhan several seconds earlier.
He will need to avoid irritating the officials in the second half if he wants to keep his courtside seat for the rest of the game.
