Portland, Ore. – True freshman Dreshawn Vance scored 19 points and Dustin Geddis had a double-double to lead Portland to an 81-69 exhibition season opening win over MBC Nikolaev on Wednesday night at the Chiles Center.
Four Pilots scored in double-figures as Portland shot 51 percent from the field in the second half, and made 16-of-20 free throws overall. Sophomore guard Eugene Jeter had 12 points, hitting both of his shots from beyond the arc. Donald Wilson had 16 points, eight rebounds and four steals. Vance recorded nine rebounds, but Geddis led the way cleaning up the glass with 10 boards. He also scored 10 points.
“It’s good to get the first one out of the way,” said Pilot head coach Michael Holton. “We looked a little nervous but I saw some encouraging things. We had good energy and I liked our rebounding effort.”
Casey Frandsen scored the first points of the season for the Pilots as he drilled a three-pointer in the opening minute to make it 3-2, Portland. Andreas Gahlmann took over from there for the Pilots. Gahlmann converted two consecutive buckets down low before clearing out the lane for Donald Wilson who threw it down with authority, making it 9-2, Pilots.
Eugene Jeter gave the Pilots their first double-digit lead when he nailed a long three-pointer to make it 17-5 nine minutes into the game. MBC Nikolaev took to the outside as they hit three three-pointers in a matter of minutes. Oleksandr Rayevskyy capped off the rally with a floater in the lane to tie it at 22 with 2:30 left in the half.
UP turned up the quickness with a couple of easy fast-break hoops. On the first fast break, Eugene Jeter faked the dish but kept it himself to make the wide-open lay-in. Portland’s tough first-half defense forced MBC Nikolaev into taking several outside shots, as they made only five of 15 attempts from beyond the arc. Nikolaev finished the night 13-of-38 from three-point land.
Portland led 30-27 at the break as Dreshawn Vance was the only player on either team to score in double-digits (10).
The Pilots came out of the locker room running, scoring early and easy in the second half. On one Pilot possession, Adam Quick found Donald Wilson high above the rim for an alley-oop cram. The Pilots made the score 58-35 when Jeter took it to the hoop, solo-lobo on the fast break. Jeter then turned right around to steal the lazy in-bound pass, and put it in uncontested.
Portland also stepped up the defensive intensity in the second half. At the 6:12 mark, Sean Smith ran the length of the floor to deny the would-be wide open lay-in by the 6-foot-7 Olexiy Onufriev. The Ukranian team pulled within 13, but Dreshawn Vance put an end to the run when he went baseline to cram over the defender, making it 78-63 with 2:15 left.
Oleksandr Rayevskyy won the Pilot crowd over with his scrappy play and all-out hustle. He led MBC Nikolaev with 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Lev Zagaynov finished with 12 points.
Portland finished with a 49-23 advantage on the boards. Typical of an early season game, both teams finished with 21 turnovers. The Pilots also had 21 assists to MBC Nikolaev’s 14.
The Pilots held a big advantage at the free-throw line taking 20 shots from the charity stripe while the Ukranian team only went to the line four times. Portland made 16 of its free throws.
Portland wraps-up its exhibition season against Concordia University in the Chiles Center on Nov. 14 at 7:00 p.m.
