Date: Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011

Location: San Francisco, Calif.

Tip: 7:00 p.m.

Arena: War Memorial Gym (5,300)

Series: POR leads 27-24

Last Meeting: @POR 74, USF 57 (Jan. 20, 2011)

 

Date: Saturday, Feb. 19, 2011

Location: Santa Clara, Calif.

Tip: 2:00 p.m.

Arena: Leavey Center (4,500)

Live Video/Stats: SantaClaraBroncos.com  

Series: SCU leads 30-25

Last Meeting: @POR 70, SCU 62 (Jan. 22, 2011)

 

The Portland Pilots (14-11, 5-5 WCC), who have won two straight, hit the road this week for the final time during the regular season for a pair of West Coast Conference games in the Bay Area. On Thursday, the Pilots will be in San Francisco, Calif., for a 7:00 p.m. game against the San Francisco Dons (4-20, 1-9 WCC) at War Memorial Gym. Then on Saturday, Portland will make the short trip south to Santa Clara for a 2:00 p.m. tilt against the Santa Clara Broncos (8-16, 4-6 WCC) at the Leavey Center.

 

Last week the Pilots picked up two much-needed home wins over the Pepperdine Waves and the Loyola Marymount Lions at the Chiles Center. On Thursday night, the Pilots survived a questionable foul call late in regulation and two overtimes to defeat the Waves 78-73. With the Pilots up three and less than a second left, a foul was called on Portland on a desperation heave, awarding Pepperdine three foul shots. Jasmine Jackson hit all three to send the game to the first overtime. Still tied with seconds remaining in the first extra period, Portland’s ReZina TecleMariam nearly won it on a runner, but the shot was off, sending the game to a second OT. That’s when UP was finally able to pull away and win it. Natalie Day had 23 points and a career-high 16 rebounds, while Cronin added 14 points and 11 boards for her second career double-double.

Day had another big game on Saturday with 26 points and 10 rebounds to help lead the Pilots to a 78-69 win over short-handed LMU. Day hit 10 of 17 from the floor and connected on a team season high of five three-pointers. Cronin hit seven of eight from the free throw line en route to 19 points, while TecleMariam had 14 points, six rebounds and six assists.

 

The Dons’ only win during conference this season was a 66-46 victory at home against Pepperdine on Jan. 29. Last weekend, USF lost 74-65 at San Diego and 73-57 at Saint Mary’s. Senior guard Kelly Jo Mullaney leads the Dons in scoring with a per game mark of 9.6 points. Senior forward Donnisha Taylor is the team’s top rebounder, averaging 6.0 boards per game, while also putting up 8.8 points per contest. 2009 Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and former U.S. National Team member Jennifer Azzi is in her first season as head coach at USF. 10 letterwinners and three starters returned from a team that was 5-27 overall and 1-13 in the WCC last season.

 

Overall: POR leads 27-24 

Here: POR leads 18-6 (Neutral USF 4-0)      

There: USF leads 14-9 (last UP W in 2010)                                

First Meeting: @POR 68, USF 48 (1987)

Last Meeting: @POR 74, USF 57 (1/20/11)

Last 5: POR 5-0  

 

Four of the Broncos’ eight wins this season have come during conference play. Saint Mary’s defeated Santa Clara 75-70 in Moraga last Thursday, while San Diego topped the Broncos 66-57 on Saturday in San Diego. Senior forward Lena Gipson is averaging a double-double with per game marks of 12.5 points and 10.7 rebounds. She is the top rebounder in the WCC and ranks 16th nationally. Sophomore guard Meagan Fulps (11.7 ppg) is second on the team in scoring. Head coach Jennifer Mountain is in her third season at the helm of the Broncos. Nine letterwinners and three starters returned from last season, when the Broncos went 5-27 overall and 1-13 in the WCC.

 

Overall: SCU leads 30-25 

Here: POR leads 14-10 (Neutral SCU 2-1)   

There: SCU leads 18-10 (last UP W in 2010)              

First Meeting: @SCU 62, POR 59 (1986)

Last Meeting: @POR 70, SCU 62 (1/22/11)

Last 5: POR 4-1

 

Portland concludes the regular season with two home games next week at the Chiles Center. The Pilots will host San Diego on Thursday, Feb. 24 at 7:00 p.m. before playing Saint Mary’s on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 2:00 p.m. The game against Saint Mary’s will be Portland’s annual “Pink Zone/Pack the House” event, where fans are encouraged to wear pink to help raise breast cancer awareness. It will also be senior day as Portland’s four seniors, Lauren Angel, Jessica Clemens, Tara Cronin and Egle Karolyte, will be honored with a pre-game ceremony.

The Pilots will then head to Las Vegas, Nev., for the 2011 West Coast Conference Basketball Championships, which runs at the Orleans Arena from March 4 through March 7.

 

The Gonzaga Bulldogs were chosen as the favorites to claim the West Coast Conference women’s basketball title for the third straight year, while the Portland Pilots were picked to finish fifth in the 2010-11 preseason coaches poll. The Pilots are coming off an 18-win season and will be looking to make their third straight trip to the post-season.

 

Senior guard Tara Cronin was selected to the 2010-11 Capital One Academic All-District 8 Women’s Basketball First Team, which was released by CoSIDA. Cronin, who earned academic all-region third team honors as a sophomore, is now eligible to earn Academic All-America. Cronin, a native of Spokane, Wash., is a mechanical engineering major with a 3.70 GPA. She’s the first academic all-region first team selection for Portland since Whitney Grant in 2006.

 

Junior guard ReZina TecleMariam was named the WCC’s Co-Player of the Week (Jan. 24) after helping lead the Pilots to a pair of home wins. TecleMariam, who averaged 17.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game during the week, shared the honor with Gonzaga’s Courtney Vandersloot. TecleMariam also averaged 3.5 assists and 5.0 steals as the Pilots defeated San Francisco 74-57 on Jan. 20 and Santa Clara 70-62 on Jan. 22 She shot 11-for-17 (.647) overall, hit six of nine (.667) on three-pointers and went 7-for-8 at the foul line.

 

The Pilots opened the season at 4-0 for just the third time in program history and for the first time since 2001-02. UP also won its first six games on the road to open with a 6-0 record away from the Chiles Center for the first time in program history.

 

During Portland’s 91-80 win over Washington State on Nov. 18, juniors Natalie Day and Nakeisha Brown became to first UP teammates to score at least 20 points in the same game since 2005. Day scored 25 against the Cougars, while Brown registered a career-high 22. During a win against UC Davis on Nov. 27, 2005, Whitney Grant (25) and Rose Sauer (20) both reached the 20-point mark.

 

Senior guard Tara Cronin has put together a remarkable career on The Bluff as she is close to becoming just the 19th player in UP program history to reach 1,000 career points. The native of Spokane, Wash., currently has 950 career points, which ranks 20th all-time at UP and is the fourth most scored by any Portland player since 2000. With at least five more games left to play this season, Cronin would need to average at least 10.0 points per game the rest of the way to reach the career milestone.

 

Cronin (9.5 ppg) is currently third in overall scoring for the Pilots, while she’s averaging 11.4 points per contest during West Coast Conference games. She’s also averaging 3.3 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game and is shooing .837 from the foul line. Cronin has missed just two free throws (20-for-22) during league play for a WCC-best percentage of .909.

She has reached double figures during five of the past four games, averaging 15.0 points per contest during that span to help Portland go 4-2.

 

Natalie Day, a junior from Germantown, Md., who leads the Pilots in scoring and rebounding, put up quite the performance last week as UP won a pair of home games. The wing averaged 24.5 points and 13.0 rebounds, while shooting a ridiculous 60.6 percent (20-for-33) from the field. During Thursday night’s improbable double-overtime win over the Waves, she scored 23 points and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds. On Saturday Day became the first Pilot this season to hit five three-pointers during a game en route to 23 points and 10 boards for her second straight double-double and fourth this season.

Day ranks eighth in the WCC in scoring (13.7 ppg) and ninth in rebounding (6.3 rpg), she’s scored in double figures during 17 of 25 games and she has two games of 25 points.

 

Junior ReZina TecleMariam, who recently nabbed the WCC’s Co-Player of the Week honor, has played both guard positions this season and has been perhaps Portland’s most consistent player. TecleMariam, who is second on the team in scoring (11.9 ppg), has two games with 10 assists and is second in the WCC in assists per game (5.2). Against Washington State on Nov. 18, Z registered her first career double-double with 16 points and 10 assists. She nearly posted back-to-back double-doubles in unorthodox style, putting up 16 points and a career-best seven steals against Air Force on Nov. 20. At Saint Mary’s on Jan. 29, TecleMariam set another milestone with a career-high 23 points.

TecleMariam has stepped up her play during the conference slate, averaging a team-best 12.9 points per contest.

 

Portland’s game against Oregon on Nov. 22 was Jim Sollars’ 700th game as UP’s head coach. In 25-plus years, Coach has compiled a 349-371 (.485) overall record with the Pilots. The next game will be his 800th at the NCAA Division I level.

Last season, coach Sollars notched career win No. 500 when the Pilots defeated the Idaho Vandals 67-56 on Nov. 11 in Moscow, Idaho. In 35-plus years as a head women’s basketball coach, Sollars has compiled 526 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.

With 154 WCC wins, Sollars has won more league games than any other coach in the 23-year history of the conference.

 

While the rest of her teammates struggled from the field at Gonzaga on Feb. 4, Lauren Angel was feeling it against the Bulldogs. Angel, a senior post out of Wollongong, Australia, used a bevy of inside moves and a handful of mid-range jumpers to score a career-high 25 points on 10 of 17 shooting. She finished with nine boards to just miss registering her second career double-double.

Angel is currently fourth on the team in overall scoring (7.9 ppg), and fourth during conference play with a per game scoring average of 10.1 points.

 

Freshman point guard Alexis Byrd has been playing like a veteran during the second half of the season as her minutes increase seemingly every week. The native of Las Vegas, Nev., who is averaging 5.9 points overall, is just shy of averaging in double figures during WCC games with a per game mark of 9.8 points. She’s reached double figures four times this season, all coming during league games, and she notched a career-high 19 points at Saint Mary’s on Jan. 29. She also has season bests of six assists (at LMU on Jan. 13), five rebounds (twice, most recently at Gonzaga on Feb. 4) and five steals (vs. Idaho on Dec. 30).

 

Senior Tara Cronin currently ranks 20th all-time in scoring at Portland with 950 career points. She also recently climbed to third all-time in career free throw percentage (.801), ranks sixth in career three-pointers made (103), eighth in three-point percentage (.358) and tenth in assists (304).

Junior Alexis Gannis is fourth all-time with a career field goal percentage of .497, while junior ReZina TecleMariam’s career three-point percentage of .368 ranks fifth and her 86 three-pointers are good for eighth. Natalie Day’s career average of 12.4 points per game sits just out of the top 10 at No. 11.

 

Redshirt-freshman Sarah Griffin has taken on blogging duties for the women’s hoops team, and she’ll be checking in from time-to-time with her thoughts and some updates on the season. Make sure to bookmark www.portlandpilots.com/GriffinBlog and follow Sarah and the Pilots all season.

 

New for 2010-11 is UP’s GameCentral, a free internet portal that combines free video, audio and livestats in one location, making following the Pilots easier and more accessible than ever before. All home, non-televised men’s and women’s soccer games, volleyball matches and men’s and women’s basketball games will be available through the free service, which is also available on your iPhone, iPad, or iTouch. To access GameCentral, simply visit PortlandPilots.com.

 

The University of Portland also unveiled online Virtual Guides for the 2010-11 season. The University teamed with Pursuant Sports for production of the new guides, which includes an All-Sports Guide as well as sport-specific guides for men’s and women’s basketball and both soccers. The Virtual Guides are another resource for fans, media and recruits to learn about University of Portland Athletics, its rich history, and to hear from coaches and administrators on campus. The addition of extensive video interviews and highlights has been incorporated into the new Virtual Guides, which can be accessed through PortlandPilots.com.

 

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.