PORTLAND, Ore.—Nik Raivio scored 12 points to lead a balanced scoring effort as Portland ended a three-game losing streak with a 72-62 victory over Denver on Saturday.
T.J. Campbell and Kramer Knutson added 11 points each for the Pilots (6-3), who were desperate to get back on track after falling out of the top 25 earlier in the week.
But it wasn’t easy. The Pioneers (6-3) were determined to make it four losses in a row for the Pilots, who had trouble at times keeping track of the cutters in Denver’s motion offense.
Denver entered the game with the nation’s third-best field-goal percentage, 52.3 percent, and the Pioneers stayed close to the mark for most of the game. By hitting 54 percent of their shots in the first half, the visitors were able to post a 35-33 lead at the break.
Reserve forward Rob Lewis led the way for Denver in that half with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting. It was his 3-point play with one second left in the half that gave the Pioneers the lead at intermission.
The game then seesawed for the first 10 minutes of the second half. But the Pioneers seemed to hit a wall as they struggled to solve Portland’s zone defense.
That led to a 13-2 Portland run, which gave the hosts a 64-52 lead with 5:09 left in the game. Raivio had six of those points.
Denver managed to close the gap to 68-62 with 1:22 left after consecutive 3-pointers by Chase Hallam. But that was as close the Pioneers would get down the stretch.
Portland finished the game with a 53.3 shooting percentage, while Denver hit 48.1 percent.
The difference in the game, though, might have come at the foul line, where Portland went 18 of 24 while Denver was a meager 4 of 5. That was largely the result of Denver being called for 20 fouls while Portland committed just 10 fouls.
Lewis, meanwhile, finished as the game’s top scorer with 16 points.
Brian Stafford added 13 for the Pioneers and Hallam had 12.
