Thurs. • Feb. 25 • 7:00 p.m. • San Francisco, Calif. (War Memorial Gym - 5,300)
Live Audio: PortlandPilots.com
Live Stats: USFDons.com
Series: POR leads 25-24
Last Meeting: POR 53, USF 50 - Jan. 28, 2010 (Portland, Ore.)
Pilots (16-11, 5-7 WCC) at Santa Clara (3-24, 1-11 WCC)
Sat. • Feb. 27 • 2:00 p.m. • Santa Clara, Calif. (Leavey Center - 4,500)
Live Audio: PortlandPilots.com
Live Stats: SantaClaraBroncos.com
Series: SCU leads 29-23
Last Meeting: POR 73, SCU 65 - Jan. 30, 2010 (Portland, Ore.)
This Week in Pilots Basketball
The Portland Pilots (16-11, 5-7 WCC) will look to improve their standing in the West Coast Conference this week with a pair of league games in Northern California. First, the Pilots are set to play the San Francisco Dons (5-24, 1-11 WCC) at War Memorial Gym in San Francisco on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Then on Saturday, Portland concludes the regular season with a 2:00 p.m. game against the Santa Clara Broncos (3-24, 1-11 WCC) at the Leavey Center in Santa Clara.
The Pilots, who are currently tied for fifth place in the WCC, have a chance to move up to No. 4 and receive a first-round bye at next week’s WCC Tournament at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.
Game Coverage
The University of Portland will provide a free audio broadcast of both games this week on PortlandPilots.com. To access the broadcasts, click on the “Multimedia” tab at the top of PortlandPilots.com and select “Live Audio”. Or simply visit the 2009-10 women’s basketball schedule, which can also be accessed through Portland’s official athletics website. Both USF and SCU will provide livestats this weekend, which will also be available though PortlandPilots.com.
Stay Connected
Fans can now follow the Portland Pilots like never before. Just visit Twitter (@PortlandPilots), facebook (facebook.com/PortlandPilots) and YouTube (youtube.com/UPPurplePride) for access to everything Pilots.
A Brief Look Back
The Pilots suffered a pair of WCC losses at the Chiles Center last week. After trailing Pepperdine by double-digits for much of the second half, Portland had a chance to tie the score in the closing seconds, but the three-point attempt from junior Tara Cronin was off as the Waves escaped with a 67-64 win on Thursday night. The score was 67-64 for the final 2:16 of the game. UP senior guard Laiken Dollente flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 18 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
On Saturday, the Loyola Marymount Lions overcame a six-point half-time deficit to defeat the Pilots 71-58 on senior day. UP honored its lone senior, guard Laiken Dollente, with a pre-game ceremony. The Pilots led by 11 three times in the first half and still led by seven (41-34) four minutes into the second when momentum drastically shifted in the visitor’s favor. LMU would embark on a lengthy 32-11 run, which included a stretch of 11 straight LMU points, covering 12 minutes and ending with the Lions leading 66-52 with 3:15 left to play. The Pilots got no closer than 10 the rest of the way.
About San Francisco
The Dons snapped a 17-game losing streak with a 58-52 win at home over Santa Clara last Saturday. Sophomore guard Rheina Ale led USF with 17 points against the Broncos and is averaging a team-best 13.6 points per game this season. As a team, the Dons are averaging just 53.6 points per contest, while allowing 66.0. Junior forward Donnisha Taylor is the team’s top rebounder, grabbing an average of 6.3 boards per game. Tanya Haave is in her fourth season as head coach of the Dons. USF returned six letterwinners and four starters from a team that was 7-22 last season and finished seventh in the WCC with a 3-11 league mark.
Pilots/Dons Series
Portland has won four straight and six of the last seven against USF to claim a slim 25-24 edge in the all-time series. The Dons gave the Pilots all they could handle at the Chiles Center earlier this season, but UP prevailed 53-50 behind 20 points and 17 boards from Alexis Gannis.
About Santa Clara
The Broncos have lost seven straight, including a 58-52 set-back at San Francisco last weekend. Junior forward Lena Gipson, who is one of three Broncos scoring in double figures, led the way against the Dons with 21 points and 15 rebounds. Sophomore guard Alyssa Shoji is the team’s leading scorer (14.1 ppg), while Gipson is averaging a double-double with per game marks of 12.5 points and 10.1 rebounds. Head coach Jennifer Mountain (2nd year) returned eight letterwinners and three starters from last year, when the Broncos were 4-17 overall and 1-13 for an eighth-place finish in the WCC.
Pilots/Broncos Series
The Pilots have claimed three straight meetings with Santa Clara, but the Broncos still lead the all-time series 29-23. Earlier this season at the Chiles Center, Tara Cronin led four Pilots in double figures with 17 points as UP defeated SCU 73-65.
A Brief Look Ahead
After Portland concludes the regular season at Santa Clara on Saturday, the Pilots head to Las Vegas, Nev., for the West Coast Conference Championships. The four-day tournament begins on Friday on March 5 and concludes on Monday, March 8. With two wins this week, the Pilots could claim the No. 4 seed and automatically receive a bye past the tourney’s first round. San Diego (6-6 WCC) and Loyola Marymount (5-7 WCC) are also in the running for the league’s fourth seed.
The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds automatically advance to the semifinals, set for Sunday, March 7. The No. 5 through No. 8 seeds will compete in Friday’s opening round to determine who will advance to the next round of the tournament. Waiting for the winners in the quarterfinals will be the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds, who will have first-round byes into Saturday’s games.
I Hate Goodbye’s
Hard to believe, but last Saturday marked the final regular season appearance at the Chiles Center for senior guard Laiken Dollente, one of the most prolific scorers and most accurate shooters in UP program history. Currently with 1,802 career points, Dollente will most likely finish her career as the No. 3 scorer in Portland history. The native of Yakima, Wash., sits behind only Martha Sheldon (1,953) and UP’s all-time overall leading scorer Lorena Legarde (2,568). Sheldon (1988-92) is Portland’s all-time leading scorer at the NCAA Division I level as Legarde’s (1981-85) career took place when UP was still competing as an NAIA school.
Dollente also currently ranks first all-time at UP in free throw shooting (.881) and three-point accuracy (.409), is second in free throws (548) and three-pointers made (208), is fifth in career points per game (15.3), is seventh in assists (389) and is ninth in field goals made with 523 career makes. She enters the final three weeks of the season 31 made free throws shy of setting a new career record in that category, and is 16 three-pointers away from the top of the that list.
Money from the Line
Laiken Dollente is currently the most accurate free throw shooter in the country. Dollente has hit 124 of 135 attempts this winter for a percentage of .919, which is just ahead of Kelsey Luna (90-for-98, .918) of Indiana State. Dollente, who is the most accurate free throw shooter in UP history with a career mark of .881, finished second in the country in free throw shooting as a sophomore.
As a team, the Pilots rank seventh in the nation with a free throw percentage of .772.
The Laik Show
This season, Laiken Dollente is scoring, spreading the wealth and crashing the glass. She leads the team and ranks third in the WCC in scoring (16.1 ppg) and is second in assists (4.7 apg). She also leads the league and the nation in free throw percentage (.919), while leading the WCC and ranking 22nd nationally in three-point percentage (.427).
Dollente’s 31 points against Montana State on Dec. 21 are tied for the second most scored in a game by a WCC player this season. It was the third time in her career to score at least 30 points and the first since notching 30 on Jan. 27, 2007 at San Francisco. She also handed out a career-high 10 assists during the win at Utah Valley on Dec. 29, becoming the first UP player to dish 10 assists in a game since Trisha Felts accomplished the feat on Feb. 26, 2000. Dollente scored 19 points at UVU for her second career double-double.
Dollente, who hit up Pepperdine last week for 18 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, has been named the West Coast Conference Player of the Week twice this season.
On Point
It’s no secret that UP’s success this winter has coincided with the improved and consistent play of sophomore point guard ReZina TecleMariam. Z is averaging career bests of 9.4 points per game, 5.6 rebounds and 4.0 assists. A native of Puyallup, Wash., TecleMariam has stepped up her play during the conference slate and is averaging 12.6 points per game during UP’s last 10 contests.
After grabbing nine rebounds during UP’s win at Idaho (Dec. 11), Z ripped down a career-high 11 boards in the victory at Washington State (Dec. 13). She scored a career-high 18 points during a 98-63 win over Sacramento State on Nov. 22. She matched that career high with 18 points against LMU on Saturday.
Perhaps her most impressive stat-lines this year were at Idaho (10 pts, 9 rebs, 6 assts, 0 TO’s, 40 mins) and at Seattle (13 pts, 9 rebs, 7 assts, 1 TO, 43 mins).
Glad to Assist
The Pilots are playing unselfish basketball this winter and have the stats to prove it. UP is averaging 16.2 assists per game, which ranks second in the WCC and 15th in the nation. The Pilots have three players in the top four in the WCC in assists, with Laiken Dollente ranking second (4.7 apg), ReZina TecleMariam third (4.0 apg) and Tara Cronin fourth (3.4 apg). Z ranks second in assists-turnover ratio (1.5), while Cronin and Dollente are tied for fourth with a ratio of 1.4.
Seize the Day
Before the season began, the NCAA waived its one-year residence requirement for sophomore transfer Natalie Day and she is taking full advantage. Day, who recently returned from a strained Achilles tendon, is second on the Pilots in scoring with an 11.4 per game mark, while averaging 4.1 rebounds per game. She has scored in double figures 14 times.
During Portland’s two road wins at LMU and Pepperdine (Jan. 21-23), Day shot 17-for-24 (.708) from the field and averaged 23.0 points and 4.0 rebounds. She also hit six of nine (.667) three-pointers and went 6-for-7 at the free throw line. Against Pepperdine on Jan. 23, Day poured in a career-high 28 points on 11 of 15 shooting. She also went 4-for-5 on three-pointers, hit both of her free throws and scored nine points in overtime to help the Pilots to an 82-76 win.
The guard/forward from Germantown, Md., transferred to UP from Howard University and was expected to sit out the entire year. She will have two years of eligibility remaining following the season.
Alexis: The Pursuit of Perfection
After earning WCC All-Freshman honors last season, sophomore forward Alexis Gannis has taken her game to a new level. Gannis has reached double figures in rebounding nine times this season and she dropped a career-high 21 points against Eastern Washington on Nov. 14. The native of Phoenix, Ariz., has also recorded her first six career double-doubles and registered four straight games of double-digit rebounds earlier this season. Gannis was named the WCC Co-Player of the Week after ripping down 17 boards against USF on Jan. 28, becoming the first Pilot to have that many rebounds in a game since 2006.
She currently leads the WCC in offensive rebounds (3.1 rpg) and ranks third in overall rebounding (8.2 rpg). She is fourth on the team in scoring (9.7 ppg) and her career field goal percentage of .511 ranks second all-time at UP, and is first during Portland’s time at the NCAA DI level. Her .633 field goal percentage during conference play leads the WCC.
500 and Counting
Head coach Jim Sollars notched career win No. 500 when the Pilots defeated the Idaho Vandals 67-56 on Nov. 11 in Moscow, Idaho. In 34-plus years as a head women’s basketball coach, Sollars has compiled 510 wins at three different schools. He began his head coaching career in 1976 at Wenatchee Valley Community College, where he tallied 154 wins in seven years. During three years (1983-86) at the helm of Portland State, Sollars added 23 more wins to the resume before moving to The Bluff. While at UP, the native of Longview, Wash., has posted 333 wins.
With 147 WCC wins, Sollars has won more league games than any other coach in the 22-year history of the conference.
Quite the Trip
Portland’s two-game swing through soggy Southern California (Jan. 21-23) was a historical one for the Pilots. It marked the first time Portland won at both LMU and Pepperdine on the same trip since 1997.
During the 94-91 win at LMU on Thursday, the Pilots shot 61.8 percent (34-for-55) from the floor, setting a program single-game record at the NCAA Division I level. As an NAIA school, UP shot .644 against Humboldt State during the 1985-86 season. The 94 points scored were also the most scored by the Pilots in a WCC game since registering 101 in 1996, also against the Lions.
Two Sports? No Problem
Junior Jessica Clemens is now in her third year as a two-sport athlete at the University of Portland. Clemens, who is an outside hitter on the UP volleyball team, joined the Pilots in early December and is averaging career bests of 5.5 points and 4.2 rebounds. A native of Burns, Ore., and the sister of NFL quarterback Kellen Clemens, Jessica recorded a career high with 10 rebounds against Utah Valley on Dec. 29. She matched a season high with 14 points against Santa Clara on Jan. 30
WCC Coaches Pick Pilots to Finish Fourth
Portland senior guard Laiken Dollente was voted to the WCC’s Preseason All-Conference team, while Gonzaga was chosen as the favorite to claim the West Coast Conference women’s basketball title for the second straight year in the 2009-10 preseason coaches poll. The Pilots were picked to finish fourth.
Nearly a Chalupa
Portland just missed reaching the century mark for the first time in 12 years when it defeated the Sacramento State Hornets 98-63 at the Chiles Center on Nov. 22. The point total is the highest for the Pilots since a 107-74 win over Idaho on Jan. 4, 1997. UP outscored Sac State 55-33 during the second half to match a program DI record for points in a half.
