Joel Foxwell tied his career-high with 27 points as host Portland upset No. 6 Gonzaga 87-80 on Wednesday night, handing the Bulldogs their first West Coast Conference loss of the season.
James O’Donnell added 16 points off the bench, Cameron Williams scored 14 points despite battling foul trouble, Jermaine Ballisager Webb added 13 points and nine rebounds, and Garrett Nuckolls scored 11 for the Pilots (11-14, 4-8 WCC), who snapped a string of 20 straight losses in the series. Portland last beat Gonzaga on Jan. 9, 2014.
Graham Ike led Gonzaga (22-2, 10-1) with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Mario Saint-Supery added 12 points and Davis Fogle scored 10.
Foxwell, a freshman guard from Australia, might have bested his career high if not for leg cramps that limited him over the final five minutes. Still, he shot 11 of 18 from the field — including 3 of 8 from 3-point range — dished out a game-high eight assists and grabbed four rebounds.
The Pilots shot 59.3% from the field (32 of 54), while limiting Gonzaga to 40.0% (26 of 65). Portland had a 32-27 rebounding edge and outscored the Bulldogs 40-26 in the paint.
Trailing by six, the Bulldogs came out strong after the intermission, with Adam Miller making a 3-pointer and Ike a jumper in the paint to make it 39-38 within the half’s first minute.
But the Pilots stemmed the momentum when Ballisager Webb made a 3-pointer just before a late-closing Ike ran into him. The four-point play pushed Portland’s lead back to five and Gonzaga never got closer than three the rest of the way.
The Pilots stretched the lead to 77-62 with 4:42 left before a late Gonzaga run.
The Pilots took a 39-33 halftime lead as Foxwell scored 13 in the opening 20 minutes.
Portland scored the game’s first four points and, after Gonzaga’s Braeden Smith made a 3-pointer, went on a 7-0 run — capped by Foxwell’s 3-pointer — to make it 11-3 before Ike had even touched the ball on the offensive end.
Back-to-back jumpers by Foxwell gave the Pilots their largest lead of the half at 15-5 just before the media timeout, at which point Gonzaga coach Mark Few brought in four substitutions to pair with Ike.
An 8-0 run capped by Saint-Supery’s 3-pointer from in front of the Portland bench gave the Bulldogs their first lead at 28-26 with 6:55 left in the half.
The Pilots regained the lead on a jumper by Foxwell and later held Gonzaga scoreless for the final 2:53 to take the lead into the intermission.
