On paper, the University of San Diego should have dominated Portland Thursday night.
The Pilots entered 0-6 in league play and had lost 22 straight conference games.
Too bad USD can't get a mulligan after this one.
USD struggled to settle into its offense all night and Portland eked out an unlikely 55-49 road win to stun the Toreros on their home floor.
The victory snapped Portland’s 22-game losing streak against West Coast Conference foes and dropped USD to 13-6 overall (4-3 in league play).
Isaiah Pineiro played great but there were stretches where it felt like he was the only Torero who could make a basket.
The redshirt junior swingman scored a career-high 26 points and corralled 11 rebounds against the Pilots.
But he didn’t have much help.
“It's just always disappointing to lose on home court especially the way we did,” said Pineiro. “It was a tie game with like 3:30 to go and on the home floor that's all you can ask for. We just didn't come up clutch in the end."
Junior guard Tyler Williams was the second-highest scorer for the home team with eight points.
Williams hit a pair of treys in the second half to help USD stay in contention for the win, but the Toreros shot a measly 4-for-23 as a team from long range.
Isaiah Wright added 10 assists but shot only 1-for-8 from the floor.
Olin Carter III was also off all night and finished just 2-for-10 from the field with six points.
Carter had a couple attempts from behind the arc in the final minute of regulation but missed both times and Portland came up with the rebound to ice the game at the free throw game.
Next up for the Toreros is a road trip to BYU this Saturday. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
