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PORTLAND PILOTS (7-11, 0-4 WCC)
vs. SAINT MARY’S GAELS (12-5, 3-1 WCC)
Date: Thursday, January 12, 2012
Tip-off: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Portland, Ore.
Arena (Capacity): Chiles Center (4,852)
Live Video/Stats/Audio:  PortlandPilots.com (free)
POR vs. SMC
Overall Series: 20-31
Here: 13-11
There: 6-18
Neutral: 1-2
Last 5/10: 1-4/3-7
2011: @SMC 78, POR 76 (1/29), SMC 62, @POR 52 (2/26)
 
PORTLAND PILOTS (7-11, 0-4 WCC)
vs. SAN FRANCISCO DONS (3-14, 1-3 WCC)
Date: Saturday, January 14, 2012
Tip-off: 2:00 p.m.
Location: Portland, Ore.
Arena (Capacity): Chiles Center (4,852)
Live Video/Stats/Audio:  PortlandPilots.com (free)
 
POR vs. USF
Overall Series: 28-24
Here: 18-6
There: 10-14
Neutral: 0-4
Last 5/10: 5-0/9-1
Last 1: @POR 75, USF 57 (1/20), POR 69, @USF 55 (2/17)
 
THIS WEEK
• The Pilots return home this week for a pair of West Coast Conference games at the Chiles Center against the first-place Saint Mary’s Gaels and the San Francisco Dons.
• The Gaels visit on Thursday night for a 7 p.m. tilt, while Saturday’s game against the Dons is scheduled for 2 p.m.
 
LAST WEEK
• The Pilots two league games on the road last week after leading both games at the half.
• In Santa Clara, Calif., on Thursday night, the Santa Clara Broncos overcame a career-high 20 points by Cassandra Brown and an 11-point halftime deficit to defeat the Pilots 78-63 at the Leavey Center.
• Then in Malibu, Calif., on Saturday, the Pepperdine Waves overcame an eight-point deficit during the game’s final 90 seconds to hand the Pilots a 66-63 loss.
• The Waves won in improbable fashion as Shay Cooney-Williams intercepted a Portland in-bounds pass and buried a half-court shot at the buzzer to win.
• Pepperdine’s Katie Menton had previously tied the game at 63-63 with a deep three-pointer with 2.2 seconds remaining.
 
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 has more WCC wins (155) than any other coach in the 23-year history of the league, has compiled 357 career wins at UP and has been named league coach of the year an unprecedented five times.
 
#1,000
• Long-time Portland head coach Jim Sollars, who is in his 26th year at the helm of the Pilots, coached in his 1,000th career game last Thursday night at Santa Clara.
• Sollars had stops at Wenatchee CC (seven years) and Portland State (three years) before settling in at UP.
• Sollars has more WCC wins (155) than any other coach in the 23-year history of the league, has compiled 357 career wins at UP and has been named league coach of the year an unprecedented five times.
• He has 534 wins total, he’s led the Pilots to three WCC titles and one WCC Tournament title, and he’s guide Portland to four NCAA Tournaments.
 
A NOVEMBER TO REMEMBER
• Natalie Day, who averaged 20.0 points and 8.0 rebounds per game during November, was named the WCC 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
• Day, who began her collegiate career at Howard before transferring to UP prior to the 2009-10 season, became Portland’s 20th 1,000-point scorer during the win over Cal State Northridge on Dec. 21.
• The senior forward has now scored 1,087 points in 74 career games for the Pilots, and she ranks 15th all-time in scoring at UP.
• Day, who scored 209 points as a freshman with the Bison, actually become a career 1,000-point scorer earlier this season, and she’s now scored a total of 1,296 points between UP and Howard.
• Day also currently ranks eighth all-time at Portland in both career scoring average (14.3 ppg) and career three-pointers made (99).
• She currently ranks second in WCC in both scoring (18.0 ppg) and rebounding (7.6 rpg).
 
THAT TOO IS A LOT OF POINTS
• Senior ReZina TecleMariam is also on pace to reach 1,000 career points this season as the native of Puyallup, Wash., currently sits at 962 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 is currently ranks fourth all-time at UP in career three-pointers made (124), while ranking seventh in three-point percentage (.351), eighth in assists (395) and 10th in steals (195).
• Z is second in the WCC in assists (4.8 apg), has four games with at least 20 points and she had 20 points and 10 assists against Boise State (Dec. 19) for her third career double-double.
 
$$$$$$$$$$$
• 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.
 
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.
• 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.