The St. Mary’s Gaels saw their unbeaten conference record disappear courtesy of a dominant second half performance by the Portland Pilots. The Pilots road the second to an 85-70 victory over the Gaels. Portland received 26 points from Tim Douglas and 21 points from Jared Stohl in the victory. St. Mary’s got another strong performance from Mickey McConnell as he scored 32 points in the defeat.
After an early back and forth, Portland took an 11-10 lead at the 14:36 mark and they never trailed after that. Saint Mary’s kept it close as they trailed 33-31 at the half, but that was the high point for them. Portland opened the second half on a 27-2 run and never looked back. It’s safe to say St. Mary’s suffered a letdown after the big victory at Gonzaga this past Thursday.
St. Mary’s drops to 6-1 in conference with the loss while Portland improves to 4-3. The Gaels are currently a half game ahead of USF who is playing at 2-4 Pepperdine tonight. If USF wins that game they’ll be tied with St. Mary’s for the conference lead. The number one seed would go to St. Mary’s at this point because they won the first matchup with USF. The Gaels travel to USF on February 12 for the second matchup.