The Brigham Young Cougars take on the Portland Pilots in West Coast action. The Cougars come in off an 83-73 victory over Gonzaga while the Pilots upset Santa Clara, 84-78.

Brigham Young might be hard pressed to catch Saint Mary's for first place in the West Coast but the Cougars are still a threat to Gonzaga for second. Baring a major collapse by the Gaels, the real battle is for second, third and fourth between BYU, Loyola Marymount and Gonzaga. The Cougars and their high powered offense kept themselves alive with a shootout victory over the Zags with over 49% from the field. The Cougars defense did keep the Bulldogs in check on 41% marksmanship and a decisive 14 steals and 19 forced turnovers which led to a crucial eight more shots for a team hitting at a high percentage. The best weapon for Gonzaga was at the foul line where they nailed 20 free throws but their 3 of 19 on threes was a killer. Four Cougars landed in the DD scoring column with Noah Hartsock pumping in 24 points and grabbing 14 rebounds followed by Matt Carlino with 18 points and five helpers. Brandon Davies added 15 points and Anson Winder ten with both handing out five helpers.

At just 3-7 in the conference, Portland is in a tie for sixth with San Diego with an outside chance of unseating San Francisco for fifth but that might be biting off more than they can chew. The Pilots have not been doing much winning but they have been competitive at times but very inconsistent so predicting what we'll see at any given time is nearly impossible. Portland snapped a six game slide with one of their highest scoring games of the season versus Santa Clara and it was needed with the defensive end of the floor struggling. The Pilots fired away at almost 56% and won the rebounding war 35-25 but the Broncos got nearly as much mileage on 43% shooting. The Broncos benefited from 16 Portland giveaways which almost was enough to steal a game they were outplayed in. Ryan Nicholas paced the attack with 19 points and eight rebounds followed by Tim Douglas with 16 while Thomas van der Mars adding eleven points and grabbing nine pulls.

Brigham Young is obviously the class of this match up and won't let this one get away with Gonzaga in their sights. I think Portland's only hope is to keep this within shouting distance as their defense won't shutdown BYU. This is a home game and the Cougars are coming off a win over Gonzaga so if the Pilots are going to cover, this is their chance but I'd feel better with around 14 points...