If there was any question about how much of an impact Patrick Mills has had on the success of Saint Mary's this season, Saturday night's double-digit loss in Portland certainly was a telling piece of evidence.

Mills, who broke two bones in his right hand during Thursday night's loss at Gonzaga, had been the team's leading scorer at 18.7 points per game.

In fact, he had nearly reached that mark in the first 17 minutes against the Bulldogs, scoring 18 points and tying a school record with six threes in the first half before leaving with 3:06 left prior to halftime.

Better yet though, the sophomore point guard was also shooting 42.4 percent from the floor and 36.2 percent from three-point land while leading the team in assists (77) and steals (47).

But to get an idea of what head coach Randy Bennett is in for over the next four weeks (and possibly more), you need only to look at Saint Mary's offensive production in an 84-66 effort against the Pilots.

The No. 18-ranked Gaels, for one, managed to shoot just 39.6 percent from the field and a meager 29.4 percent from three, while also only dishing out 10 assists compared to Portland's 21.

And it's also worth noting that Saint Mary's, without Mills in the second half against the 'Zags, shot just 10-for-30 from the field and a miserable 2-for-14 (14.3 percent) from distance a few nights ago in Spokane.

Portland (15-7 overall. 6-1 WCC), on the other hand, shot lights out from long range, canning 61.1 percent - including a 6-for-6 effort in the second half - of their trifectas, while junior guard Nik Raivio torched Saint Mary's for 27 points and added five rebounds and four assists to his stat line.

"I'm really proud of our performance and the way we responded after getting hit in the mouth early," Portland coach Eric Reveno offered afterward. "I think the defense dictated that we won, then we just happened to shoot the ball well and create some separation."

While there's no doubt that the Pilots' defense was good, particularly in the second half, the same didn't hold true for Saint Mary's (18-3, 5-2), which has now lost back-to-back conference games and finds itself sitting in third place - behind Portland - in the West Coast Conference standings.

"Your heart goes out to (Saint Mary's) because they're in a tough spot, that's a tough situation to be in as a hard-working team," Reveno said about the Gaels missing Mills. "It's hard for a college basketball team to go through, so I knew that we needed to stay on them, to our guys' credit, the guys just dug in and made some plays."