March has been a good month for the Portland women’s basketball team under head coach Michael Meek. It appears the Pilots are determined to create madness again at the Credit Union 1 West Coast Conference Women’s Basketball Championship.

They made their tourney debut Saturday and utilized their disruptive pressure defense to generate a 72-62 victory over Washington State at Orleans Arena. The No. 5 seed Pilots (18-13) will play a quarterfinal game Sunday against defending tournament champ and fourth-seeded Oregon State (21-10) at 11:30 a.m.

The Cougars (9-25), who were playing their third game in three days after wins over Seattle U and Pacific, trailed just 33-30 at halftime. The third quarter changed everything with the Pilots’ press grabbing six steals and forcing 10 turnovers which led directly to 11 points.

Portland used a 12-0 run over a span of just one minute, 38 seconds to extend to a 47-34 lead and the margin was 56-41 by the end of the third period.

“Coming out after halftime and getting as much pressure as we can, getting deflections, doing those little things that Mike [Michael Meek] has been talking about all season long, really paid off today,” said sophomore guard Dyani Ananiev, who had eight points, four rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots.

Meek, who noted the team’s steady improvement since the start of the season, liked what he saw from the Pilots’ pressure defense in the third quarter.

“It’s kind of who we are. That’s kind of our identity,” he said. “Knowing we were going to have trouble with their size in the half court, we tried to get a little more of a full-court game. At times when we got it going that way, I thought it really played in our favor.”

Portland has exceled on this stage, compiling an 11-3 record at the conference tournament since Meek became coach in 2019-20. The Pilots won titles in 2020, ’23 and ’24, and lost to Oregon State in the championship game last season.

All five starters graduated from last year’s 31-win squad and this team has had an up-and-down campaign. But the Pilots beat Gonzaga in overtime to close the regular season and they are now two victories from their sixth 20-win season in seven years. 

“We have a very new team,” said Ananiev, who played just 10 games a year ago because of injury. "We just get better every day.”

Asked how far the Pilots can go at this tournament, Ananiev said, “Hopefully all the way. That’s the end goal for everyone, isn’t it?”

Junior guard Rhyan Mogel led the charge Saturday with 19 points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals. She shot 7-for-11 from the field and made all three of her 3-point attempts. Junior forward Lainey Spear had 16 points and three assists.

The Pilots shot 50 percent from the field and from behind the arc and converted nine of 10 free throws. They had 11 steals, just one fewer than their conference-leading average.

COUGARS BOW OUT: The Cougars had a season-best four-game win streak after their Friday victory over Pacific, but they couldn’t keep up with Portland when the second half arrived.

“They have just had our number. Kind of the same script every game — the third quarter they amp it up a little bit on the pressing side of it,” said WSU head coach Kamie Ethridge, alluding to the fact that Portland has outscored the Cougars 65-40 in the third quarters of three games this season. “Our ball handling and decision-making really let us down in the start of the second half. 

“I thought we had advantages to break their press and make them pay for being so aggressive. We just couldn’t quite make the plays we needed to not let that separation happen.”

Junior guard Ele Villa, who scored 16 points and finished three games at Vegas averaging 20.0, said playing a third game in a span of 50 hours took a toll.

“After two games in a row you feel the fatigue,” she admitted. “But Portland does a good job in pressing and being aggressive. We should have taken care of the ball better and we didn’t.”

USF SHOWS BALANCE IN WIN OVER PEPPERDINE: A day after relying on 25 points from all-conference sophomore Candy Edokpaigbe in their tournament-opening win over San Diego, seventh-seeded USF showed a balanced attack in its 86-69 third-round triumph over No. 6 seed Pepperdine. 

Nine players scored in the first half when the Dons (18-13) led by as many as 21 points on the way to a 43-30 edge at the break. USF wound up with five double-digit scorers, including Mara Neira (15 points), Natasa Tausova (14 points, 7 rebounds), Aina Cargol (13 points, 9 assists) and Noelia Mourino (11 points, 7 rebounds).

Two more players scored eight points or more for the Dons. In their previous game, Edokpaigbe’s teammates combined for just 36 points on 28-percent shooting. They totaled 76 points in this one.

Head coach Molly Goodenbour said inexperience has been the team’s chief issue. “We’re a young team and a new team and we ask them to do a lot,” she said. “Sometimes they can do that brilliantly and sometimes it’s hard. Consistency is something that’s been an issue for us all year. This is probably one of the best games we’ve played.”

The Dons had their way despite the fact that Edokpaigbe shot 1-for-8 in the first half and wound up with 10 points.

Getting a fast start made all the difference after the Dons were forced to rally from a 2-for-21 shooting performance in the first half Friday against San Diego.

“While it’s great to get a high seed, it’s also difficult to wait all week to play,” Goodenbour said, referencing Pepperdine’s situation. “That first game you’ve got jitters. We kind of had that under our belt. We got a great start and we were able to sustain that.”

USF has won twice at the conference tournament for the first time since 2016, when the Dons strung together three victories to capture the title and the program’s most recent NCAA Tournament bid.

They play Sunday in the quarterfinals against No. 3 seed Santa Clara (23-8) at 2 p.m. The Broncos beat the Dons in both regular-season meetings.

“We’re going to be tired tomorrow but this game gives us really good energy,” Cargol said. “We just want to keep winning. We don’t want our season to come to an end.”

DONS FIND THEIR 3-POINT EYE: The 3-point shot has been a struggle for the Dons, who entered Saturday ranked 11th in the conference at 27.9 percent. It’s been rougher still in recent weeks, with the team converting just 19.2 percent over five games.

But they were on the mark with a season-high 13 baskets from beyond the arc against the Waves, making 42 percent of their 31 attempts.

No one with the Dons had an explanation for why the ball dropped on Saturday. “I think it helps us because it’s better energy when you make a hard one,” said Tausova, who made four 3’s. “I don’t know why we picked today to make 13.”

“I’ll take it. I’m not going to give it back,” Goodenbour said with a smile. “I don’t know when it will happen again.”

WAVES FEEL PRIDE, WANT MORE: Head coach Katie Faulkner’s team won eight games in her debut season a year ago, and no one from that roster returned this year. She stuck with her vision to rebuild with high-character players who were winners and felt no sense of entitlement for what would be a rebuild.

She talked about “knowing what we had ahead of us and the puzzle and the mystery it was going to be.” The Waves (19-11) exceeded expectations, winning 10 conference games for the first time in seven years.

“What we were able to accomplish this year was truly remarkable,” Faulkner said. “We did it with no superstars. We did it with a team. I’m really proud of that. This is a beautiful foundation for where we’re headed.”

Sophomore guard Elli Guiney, who scored 22 points against the Dons, said the players are accountable for the slow start that led to a 28-14 first-quarter deficit. 

She said he’s not sure what postseason opportunity might be there for the Waves, but added, “We have four amazing seniors and if they want to keep playing, I’m right there with them.”