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Portland, Ore. • After stunning nationally ranked Gonzaga on Thursday night in Spokane, Wash., the BYU Cougars immediately said the historic win would mean nothing if they couldn't validate it in their next three games, all on the road.
Well, that happened just as they feared it would, because the fired-up Portland Pilots shot the lights out — or so it seemed — in front of a sellout crowd of mostly BYU supporters, 4,852, and upset the Cougars 84-81 at Chiles Center.
A group of about 100 Portland students stormed the court in celebration after the Pilots won just their third West Coast Conference game, against four losses, as the Cougars trudged through the handshake line shaking their heads in disgust.
"It makes the [73-70 win over No. 25 Gonzaga] win bittersweet, because this was a great opportunity to continue to create our identity as a team, and be able to put some substance behind that win at Gonzaga, you could say," said junior Kyle Davis.
Two nights after holding Gonzaga to a season-low 38-percent shooting, the Cougars (13-6, 4-2 WCC) couldn't slow down Portland, one of the league's better offensive teams. The Pilots made 10 3-pointers — sophomore D'Marques Tyson had five of those off the bench, including one tipped by Nate Austin — and shot 45.2 percent from the field, 38.5 percent from 3-point range.
"I don't know what the percentages were, but it seems like they made everything they put up, both when we were playing bad defense and when we were right on them," Davis said.
Tyson finished with 21, while fellow guards Alex Wintering (22) and Bryce Pressley (21) also had big games to erase the memory of Thursday's 82-71 home loss to San Diego. The Pilots made 18 of 22 free throws, including a pair by Wintering with 16.5 seconds left and Portland clinging to a two-point lead when it appeared he got away with traveling in front of BYU's bench. Cougar coaches erupted on the play, to no avail.
Down four, Fischer and Nick Emery got decent looks at 3-pointers, but neither dropped. The Cougars were just 6 of 22 from long range.
"It was tough. Give them credit. They played really well," Fischer said. "They were really physical with us, and they hit a lot of shots. A lot of it was missed defensive assignments for us, but they played really well and executed their game plan."
The Cougars trailed for all but a few seconds of the first half, and were down 36-23 with about six minutes remaining before rallying to cut the deficit to 42-40 with a 17-6 run. They took a 63-58 lead with eight minutes remaining, then watched Tyson, Wintering and Pressley hit consecutive 3-pointers that gave the home team a lead it would not relinquish in the final chaotic minutes.
"That kinda just took the momentum away from us," Fischer said of the back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers. "That was when we could have just grabbed the game and won it. But we didn't and they made more plays than us and made more shots than us."
The nail in the coffin was Tyson's 3-pointer with 1:04 left that gave Portland an 80-74 lead.
"Offensively, we missed a lot of shots early," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "We were kind of lucky, as inefficient as we were in our execution, to only be down a couple points at halftime. Then the second half, the game was a matter of who makes the most plays."
Portland did, picking up only its second win over BYU in 15 tries.
The natural reaction would be to believe the Cougars still had their heads in the Gonzaga win, but Fischer, Davis and Rose downplayed that notion, saying they were ready to go and figured they'd take Portland's best shot after beating the Pilots three times last year.
"They just got open [for shots], and they just made them," Davis said. "I don't know if it was anything tricky they were doing. They just made shots, and I can think of a couple where they were well-defended. They were deep shots, like Nick's at Gonzaga. And they just made them. My hat is off to them. They shot well in their home gym, and we will be looking forward to playing them at home in a couple of weeks."
Trouble is, the Cougars must now go back out on the road again for games at Loyola Marymount on Thursday and Pepperdine on Saturday. And their hopes of contending for the WCC title, sparked by that big win at Gonzaga, took a big hit.
"Well, we are disappointed," Rose said. "We played hard. We out-rebounded them [44-36]. That is a real effort statistic. In games where we out-rebound teams, we usually win. This thing just didn't go our way."
Twitter: @drewjay —
Storylines
R Three Pilots — Alec Wintering, D'Marques Tyson and Bryce Pressley — combine to score 64 points and Portland upsets BYU.
• BYU takes a 63-58 lead with eight minutes remaining, but Portland answers with three-straight 3-pointers to take a lead it doesn't relinquish.
• Chase Fischer leads BYU with 22 points, and Kyle Davis adds 20 points and six rebounds.
Portland 84, BYU 81
BYU (13-6)
Davis 6-11 7-9 20, Austin 2-3 3-5 7, Fischer 7-15 5-7 22, Emery 4-11 3-4 13, Collinsworth 4-17 2-2 10, Seljaas 1-4 1-1 3, Chatman 0-5 0-0 0, Aytes 0-1 0-0 0, Kaufusi 3-4 0-1 6. Totals 27-71 21-29 81.
PORTLAND (9-11)
Todd 0-3 3-4 3, Taylor 2-6 0-0 4, Barreno 1-3 0-0 2, Pressley 8-15 3-4 21, Wintering 6-10 8-9 22, Tyson 8-14 0-0 21, Russell 0-0 0-1 0, Hartwich 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 0-2 0-0 0, Marshall 3-9 4-4 11. Totals 28-62 18-22 84.
Halftime—Portland 42-40. 3-Point Goals—BYU 6-22 (Fischer 3-8, Emery 2-6, Davis 1-2, Chatman 0-1, Collinsworth 0-2, Seljaas 0-3), Portland 10-26 (Tyson 5-10, Wintering 2-3, Pressley 2-7, Marshall 1-3, Johnson 0-1, Todd 0-2). Fouled Out—Davis. Rebounds—BYU 44 (Austin 11), Portland 36 (Barreno 8). Assists—BYU 10 (Collinsworth 6), Portland 12 (Wintering 5). Total Fouls—BYU 21, Portland 26. A—4,852.
WCC Standings
Conference Overall
W L Pct. W L Pct.
St. Mary's (CA) 6 1 .857 15 2 .882
Gonzaga 6 1 .857 14 4 .778
BYU 4 2 .667 13 6 .684
Pepperdine 4 3 .571 11 7 .611
Pacific 3 4 .429 4 12 .250
Portland 3 4 .429 9 11 .450
Santa Clara 3 4 .429 7 12 .368
San Francisco 3 5 .375 9 9 .500
Loyola Marymount 1 5 .167 8 9 .471
San Diego 1 5 .167 6 11 .353
Saturday's Games
Pepperdine 98, San Francisco 84
Portland 84, BYU 81
Gonzaga 88, San Diego 52
Bethesda at Pacific, late
Loyola Marymount at Santa Clara, late