National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
St. Mary's 70, Portland 43
When: 10:00 PM ET, Thursday, February 23, 2012
Where: The Earle A. & Virginia H. Chiles Center, Portland, Oregon
Officials: # Kevin Brill, # Gregory Nixon, # Deron White
Attendance: 2829

SAINT MARY’S 70, PORTLAND 43: Clint Steindl scored a game-high 15 points and No. 23 Saint Mary’s clinched at least a share of the West Coast Conference title for the second consecutive year.

Rob Jones tallied his 17th double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds for Saint Mary’s (24-5, 13-2 West Coast), which closed the first half on a 24-4 run and led by 17 at halftime.

Portland (6-22, 3-12 West Coast) committed 17 turnovers and lost its fifth straight game. Senior guard Nemanja Mitrovic hit three 3-pointers and finished with 14 points in his final home game. Portland's top scorer and rebounder, Ryan Nicholas, had just seven points and four boards.

Coming off back-to-back blowout losses to Murray State and Loyola Marymount, Saint Mary’s shot 23 of 47 (48.9 percent) from the field. Matthew Dellavedova added 12 points and nine assists.

Saint Mary’s, which closes the regular season at San Francisco this Saturday, held Portland to 16 of 50 (32 percent) shooting and outrebounded the Pilots 33-24.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Saint Mary’s improved to 87-8 over the last four seasons when scoring 70 points or more. … Saint Mary’s Stephen Holt missed his second straight game with a knee injury, but he hopes to return in time for the start of the WCC tournament on Feb. 29. … The first-place Gaels entered Thursday’s action one game ahead of BYU and Gonzaga. … Coming off consecutive 20-win seasons, the Pilots will be the 7 or 8 seed in next week’s conference tournament. ... Saint Mary's was 20 of 25 (80 percent) from the foul line, while Portland made just five of eight attempts.
Top Game Performances
 
St. Mary's   Portland
Clint Steindl 15 Scoring Nemanja Mitrovic 14
Matthew Dellavedova 9 Assists Tanner Riley 3
Rob Jones 13 Rebounds Thomas van der Mars 8
Matthew Dellavedova 6 Free Throws Made Nemanja Mitrovic 3
Matthew Dellavedova 2 Steals John Bailey 1
Beau Levesque 1 Blocks John Bailey 1
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
St. Mary's 70 48.9 4-13 20-25 16 33 1 11 14
Portland 43 32.0 6-19 5-8 9 24 4 7 17
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