As the basketball calendar turned to December on Sunday, only one West Coast Conference team — men or women — still enjoyed an unblemished record.
The Portland women won their first two games at the Nugget Classic in Reno, improving to 7-0 — the best start in program history.
In the tournament’s championship game on Sunday, the Pilots bumped their record to 8-0 with an 88-72 victory over host Nevada. Portland has won by double digits every time out and is averaging nearly 82 points per game.
Portland was again steered by its senior backcourt tandem, with New Zealand native Emme Shearer (17.0 points) scoring a career-high 26 points and Maisie Burnham (16.4) adding 20 against Nevada.
Coach Michael Meek, whose team is coming off a 21-win season and a trip to the NCAA Tournament, has assembled a balanced squad. LMU grad transfer Alexis Mark contributes 10.6 points and 7.0 rebounds and fellow forward Trista Hill, a transfer from Boise State, averages 8.6 points and 4.3 rebounds. All four of those starters are shooting better than 50 percent from the field.
Point guard McKelle Meek dishes 4.4 assists per outing, and a pair of sophomores, Dyani Anaiev (9.0 points, 5.3 rebounds) and Rhyan Mogel (8.5 pints), provide a lift off the bench. Anaiev has missed the past five games with a leg injury, but is expected back late this week.
Whether their fast start makes the Pilots the favorite now in the WCC is up for grabs. Perennial powerhouse Gonzaga, playing a more challenging schedule is 4-5 after losing three times at the Paradise Jam at St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.
The Zags, who have replaced four of five starters, still have time to sort things out. In the meantime, they have the most consistently productive player in the conference in reigning WCC Player of the Year Yvonne Ejim (18.7 points, 9.6 rebounds). She has five 20-point games this season and five double-doubles.
Gonzaga also is getting solid play from freshman Allie Turner (13.4 points, 46 percent 3-point), a St. Louis native, who has scored in double digits seven times in her first nine college games.
But for now, Portland has done all it can to set itself up for a big season.
ZAGS, GAELS TASTE DEFEAT BUT APPEAR STRONG: The Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s men each suffered their first loss of the season but look none the worse for wear.
The No. 3 Zags (7-1) squandered a five-point lead in the final 25 seconds of regulation against West Virginia before falling 86-78 in overtime in its opening game of the Battle 4 Atlantis at Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
“That game came down to kind of execution at the end,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few told the Spokesman Review. “I just should’ve jumped up there and used that timeout when we sat there struggling against the press. That one was one me.”
The Zags have good company as the sixth team ranked in the top-5 of the AP Top-25 poll to suffer a defeat. ESPN’s Jeff Borzello reported that’s the third-most times it’s happened before December since the AP poll made its debut in 1948-49.
Gonzaga bounced back with an 89-73 win over No. 14 Indiana before a 90-65 trouncing of Davidson in the tournament’s fifth-place game. Senior point guard Ryan Nembhard dished 39 assists in the three games and leads the nation at 10.8 per game.
The Gaels (7-1) absorbed their first defeat on Friday with a 69-64 loss to Arizona State (7-1) in the Acrisure Classic at Palm Desert.
"We played well for stretches, but not for the full 40 minutes,” associate head coach Mickey McConnell said, “and in games like this, you need to perform for the entire 40 minutes to pick up a victory.”
The Gaels began the season 7-0 for the first time since starting the 2013-14 campaign with nine straight wins. They used a stunning surge to beat USC 71-36 in the tournament opener, storming from a 19-18 deficit into a 63-28 lead with a 45-9 run over a span of just under 21 minutes. Saint Mary’s held the Trojans to 26-percent shooting, including 0 for 12 on 3’s, and doubled them up on the boards, 46-23.
LAST WEEK’S BIG THING: Senior forward Elizabeth Elliott scored a career-high 26 points on 11-for-15 shooting to go with nine rebounds, leading the Pacific women to a 64-60 victory over Houston in the Big Easy Classic at New Orleans. It was the Tigers’ first-ever win over a team from the Big 12 Conference.
THIS WEEK’S BIG THING, PART 1: The Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s men each play high-profile games Saturday. The Gaels face Utah (6-1) in Salt Lake City on ESPN+, before the Zags trek cross-state for the Battle in Seattle vs. No. 8 Kentucky (7-0) in a 7 p.m.game on ESPN2.
THIS WEEK’S BIG THING, PART 2: Pacific’s women (4-4) get the rare chance to host Cal (7-1) on Saturday at 2 p.m. on ESPN+. The Tigers own just two victories ever vs. the Golden Bears and the most recent one was a a 64-63 verdict on Nov.24, 1997 at Stockton.
LMU’S PORTER DELIVERS SOUTH OF THE BORDER: LMU junior forward Jevon Porter Jr. was named Riviera Division MVP while leading the Lions to the title at the Cancun Challenge. The Lions beat Belmont and Wyoming to square their season record at 3-3.
The 6-foot-11 Porter totaled 45 points, 19 rebounds, 5 assists and 7 blocks and shot 56% from the field in the two wins. He made a career-high six 3’s in the 73-70 win over Wyoming in the in title game while scoring 29 points, one shy of his career-high two years ago while a freshman at Pepperdine.
STEWART FINDING GROOVE AGAIN: Senior guard Carlos Stewart Jr. was a first-team All-WCC selection as a sophomore in 2022-23 before returning to his home state of Louisiana to spend last season at LSU. Following an ACL injury, Stewart decided to return to Santa Clara this season.
The transition to playing point guard for coach Herb Sendek wasn’t immediately smooth, with Stewart averaging 7.3 points and shooting 29 percent through the Broncos’ first six games. He began to find a rhythm the past two outings, scoring 18 points in a 69-52 win over TCU at the Acrisure Invitational in Palm Springs before posting 20 a night later in a 76-69 loss to Washington.
Stewart shot 8 for 9 from the field against TCU, the most efficient performance of his 87-game college career. The two point totals were his highest since scoring 22 vs. USF in the 2023 WCC Tournament.
“Coach all week emphasized energy and emphasized me being a true point guard,” Stewart said after the TCU game. “It’s about making the right decisions. So I got in the gym early this week and had to knock down some shots so I’d ready today.”