Zags return to conference play against Pilots

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Gonzaga Bulldogs slip back into West Coast Conference play tonight when they take on Portland at the Pilots’ 5,000-seat Chiles Center.

A sellout crowd is expected to be on hand as the fifth-ranked Zags (20-3, 9-0 WCC) try to protect their national ranking, extend their 11-game winning streak and maintain their two-game lead over second-place Loyola Marymount in the league standings.

GU beat the Pilots (8-15, 2-7) 81-64 at the McCarthey Athletic Center late last month and have won 19 of the last 20 games in the long-running series. The Bulldogs’ Adam Morrison, the nation’s second-leading Division-I scorer, torched the Pilots for 42 points in that first meeting of the year, but the final score was deceivingly lopsided.

And GU coach Mark Few said he expects another difficult test tonight.

“That’s a tough, tough venue for us,” he said of the Chiles Center. “It will be sold out, there will people hanging from the rafters and Portland will come in with nothing to lose and everything to gain.

“We’ll have our hands full, because they gave us fits for stretches of that (first) game.”

Adding to Few’s concerns is senior guard Darren Cooper, who missed the first matchup with turf toe but is expected to play in this one. The 6-foot-3 Portland resident boasts a scoring average of 13.7 points per game that ranks second on the team to Pooh Jeter’s 17.3.

The Pilots are a perimeter-oriented team and feature a three-guard lineup designed to spread opposing defenses and create scoring opportunities off dribble penetration and kick-outs.

“They’ve got some very, very talented players,” Few said. “Look at Pooh Jeter. He’s as good a guard as we’ve faced all year.”

Portland coach Michael Holton announced late last week that sophomore forward Marcus Lewis, who was averaging 10.5 points and 5.8 rebounds, has left the team after being suspended indefinitely on Thursday for violating team policies.

Gonzaga could get some extended minutes from redshirt freshman forward Josh Heytvelt, who has been cleared to play after missing 18 games with a broken left ankle. The 6-foot-11, 235-pounder played briefly in Saturday’s 80-76 non-conference win over Stanford.

“We’ll get him more,” Few said of Heytvelt. “(Stanford) was a tough game to get him a lot of minutes, because it was so possession-by-possession. He’s going to help us a lot.”