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PORTLAND PILOTS (5-6, 0-0 WCC)
vs. #13 LOUISVILLE CARDINALS (9-2, 1-0 Big East)
Date: Saturday, December 17, 2011
Tip-off: 2:00 p.m.
Location: Portland, Ore.
Arena (Capacity): Chiles Center (4,852)
Live Video/Stats/Audio: PortlandPilots.com (free)
 
POR vs. LOU
Overall Series: 0-0
Here: 0-0
There: 0-0
Last 5: 0-0
Last 1: N/A
 
PORTLAND PILOTS (5-6, 0-0 WCC)
vs. BOISE STATE BRONCOS (6-4, 0-0 MWC)
Date: Monday, December 19, 2011
Tip-off: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Portland, Ore.
Arena (Capacity): Chiles Center (4,852)
Live Video/Stats/Audio:  PortlandPilots.com (free)
 
POR vs. BSU
Overall Series: 9-5
Here: 6-1
There: 3-4
Last 5: 3-2
Last 1: POR 83, @BSU 76 (Nov. 12, 2010)
 
THIS WEEK
• The Boise State Broncos then visit on Monday night for a 7 p.m. game.
 
PACK THE HOUSE
• The Pilots hope to ‘Pack the House’ on Saturday when they host the No. 13 Louisville Cardinals.
• The NCAA’s ‘Pack the House’ Challenge is in its sixth year, and is used to help promote women’s basketball and increase attendance.
• The goal is to set a season-high in attendance.
• NCAA member schools compete against schools in their own conference as well as all Division I schools for a chance to be the 2012 NCAA Women’s Basketball Pack the House Challenge Champion.
• The Portland men will follow the women’s game with a non-conference contest against Montana at 7 p.m.; both games will be followed by an autograph zone, and those with a ticket stub from the women’s game can purchase a general admission ticket to the men’s game for half price.
 
LAST WEEK
• The Pilots went on the road last weekend and dropped a pair of games in Seattle, Wash.
• On Friday night, the Pilots led the Washington Huskies in the second half at Alaska Airlines Arena before going ice cold from the field; UW took full advantage en route to a 61-49 win.
• Natalie Day had 18 points against the Huskies, while Nakeisha Brown scored a season-best 15 points.
• Then on Sunday, the Seattle Redhawks cruised to a 69-55 win at Seattle U.
 
ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Natalie Day is the WCC’s November Player of the Month and she has nabbed three WCC Player of the Week Awards.
• Alexis Byrd set a facility record by making all 11 free throws during a game against Portland State at the Chiles Center on Nov. 25.
• The Pilots have posted three straight winning seasons and four straight years with a record of .500 or better.
• Portland has been to the post-season during two of the past three seasons, going to the WNIT in 2009 and the inaugural WBI in 2010.
• UP was selected to finish sixth in the WCC this year, while Day and ReZina TecleMariam were voted to the pre-season all-conference team.
• Head coach Jim Sollars is in his 26th year at the helm of the Pilots; Sollars has more WCC wins (155) than any other coach in the 23-year history of the league, has compiled 355 career wins at UP and has been named league coach of the year an unprecedented five times.
• UP’s game at Santa Clara on Jan. 5 will be Sollars’ 1,000 career game as a head coach.
 
A NOVEMBER TO REMEMBER
• Natalie Day, who averaged 20.0 points and 8.0 rebounds per game during November, was named the West Coast Conference Player of the Month.
• Day, who also nabbed all three league player of the week awards handed out in November, became the first UP player to be named the conference’s player of the month since Jamie Medley earned that distinction in February 2005.
• The native of Germantown, Md., shot 54.9 percent from the field, scored at least 20 points four times, and she had a game with 19 rebounds, which are the most by a Pilot during a single game since 1998.
 
 THAT’S A LOT OF POINTS
• During the 2011-12 opening weekend, Day became a 1,000 career-point scorer with her 22-point outburst against UC Irvine on Nov. 13.
• Day, who began her collegiate career at Howard before transferring to UP prior to the 2009-10 season, scored 209 points as a freshman with the Bison, and she’s tallied 958 career points so far with the Pilots for a career total of 1,167 points.
• Day also currently ranks eighth all-time at Portland in career scoring average (13.9 ppg) and career three-pointers made (89).
• She currently ranks second in WCC in scoring (18.4 ppg) and fourth in rebounding (7.7 rpg); her 19 boards against Montana (Nov. 27) are the most recorded in a game in the WCC this season and tied for the 14th most nationally.
 
THAT TOO IS A LOT OF POINTS
• Senior ReZina TecleMariam is also poised to reach 1,000 career points this season as the native of Puyallup, Wash., currently sits at 876 career points.
• TecleMariam and Day would become the first Pilot teammates to reach 1,000 career points in the same season since Deanna Lansing and Wendy Toonen accomplished the feat back in 1997.
• Additionally, the Pilots have had a winning record during each of TecleMariam’s three years on The Bluff, and she currently ranks sixth in career three-pointers made (112), while ranking seventh in three-point percentage (.353) and eighth in assists (361).
• Z is second in the WCC in assists (4.8 apg) and she has two games with 20 points.
 
$$$$$$$$$$$
• Against Portland State on Nov. 25, sophomore Alexis Byrd set a new Chiles Center record by going a perfect 11-for-11 at the free throw line.
• The 11 free throws without a miss tops the previous Chiles Center record by one; former Portland stand-out Laiken Dollente went 10-for-10 at the line in 2009, while Cal Poly’s Bria Fields accomplished the feat in 2006.
• Byrd scored a career-high 21 points against the Vikings.
 
YO! CHECK US OUT
• Of course the Portland Pilots are on the Facebook, but the Pilots didn’t settle for just one page, they have two!
• Just visit Portland Pilots Women’s Basketball or Portland Pilots WBB and be sure to ‘like’ the page, or add the team as a friend.
 
A NEW LOOK
• For the first time in more than 30 years, the West Coast Conference has a new member as Brigham Young University formally joined the WCC last summer.
• With the change in membership, the WCC launched its new brand identity with a new logo (which can be seen in the far right column).
• It’s the WCC’s first visual change since 1995.
 
THE BLOGGER... OR BLOGGERS
• The Pilots will combine efforts this year on a season-long blog, as members of the team and coaching staff will take turns sharing their thoughts on the season.
• Visit, and make sure to bookmark, PortlandPilots.com/WBBblog.