Feb. 21, 2002

Box Score

(Portland, OR) - Fortunately basketball is not won on style points. San Francisco is relieved following its thrilling 52-49 victory against the Portland Thursday in West Coast Conference play in the Chiles Center. The Lady Dons (16-10, 8-5 WCC) win their fourth consecutive game and send the Pilots (12-14, 4-9 WCC) to just their third home loss of the season.

Junior guard Lisa Whiteside hit a pair of decisive free throws with 12 seconds on the clock to seal the victory for USF. Whiteside scored five points - all in the second half and all were huge for San Francisco. As has become their pattern, the Lady Dons trailed heading to the locker room at half time for the fourth straight contest. Continuing the trend, USF emerged after the intermission playing inspired basketball in the early going of the second half.

San Francisco took their first lead of the contest at with 15:15 in the second period on the first of three consecutive 3-pointers by junior guard Vilma Tamuleviciute who sparked USF to a 34-31 lead with 12:44 remaining. The Pilots kept it close and seized the lead 49-48, on a free throw from sophomore guard Da'Love Woods at the 1:15 mark. The stage was set for Whiteside's dramatic charity tosses and USF's stingy defense did the rest.

USF held a big advantage on the boards, out-rebounding the Pilots 37-28, which was enough to negate 24 USF turnovers. Portland committed 15 miscues. The Lady Dons shot the ball at a .417 (20-48) clip while the Pilots connected on .367 (18-49). San Francisco capitalized beyond the 3-point arc connecting on 6-17 (.353), while Portland hit just one of nine (.111) from long range.

San Francisco got a game-high 17 points from sophomore forward Carey Sauer, while Tamuleviciute added nine on back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers. Freshman center Corry Berger contributed an important nine points and added a game-high eight rebounds off the bench.

USF travels to Spokane in search of their fifth consecutive league victory and third straight Pacific Northwest sweep when they face Gonzaga on Saturday. Game time is at 7:00 PM at the Martin Centre.