Pilots Open Second Half of WCC Schedule at Saint Mary’s

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Portland Pilots (8-15, 1-7) at Saint Mary’s Gaels (18-4, 7-1)
Date: Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013
Tip-off: 4:30 p.m. (PST)
Location: Moraga, Calif.
Arena: McKeon Pavilion (3,500)
Television: ROOT Sports/CSN-CA
Radio: 800 AM
Overall Series: 29-55
At UP: 21-21
At SMC: 7-31
At Neutral: 1-3
Last: SMC 60, POR 38 (Jan. 19, 2013 at Portland)     

GAME INFORMATION
• Portland continues its Bay Area road trip at Saint Mary’s on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
• The Pilots dropped a 70-46 decision at Santa Clara on Thursday.
• Saturday’s game will be televised live on ROOT Sports Northwest and CSN California as Glen Kuiper and Dan Belluomini provide the commentary.
• All Portland basketball games will be on the radio live on True Talk 800 AM with Bill Johnson calling the play-by-play and a 30-minute pregame show.

COMING UP
• Portland returns home to host Loyola Marymount on Thursday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. and then Pepperdine on Saturday, Feb. 9 at 1 p.m.
• Thursday will feature the popular Halftime Mile promotion as Pilot track runners and other elite distance competitors will do a mile race at halftime on the Chiles Center upper level track.
• Saturday’s game is Military Appreciation Day as the 204th Army Band will be on hand. All active and retired military personnel will receive free admission to the game.
• Tickets are still available by calling the Pilot Box Office at (503) 943-7525.

ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Portland (8-15, 1-7 WCC) began its two-game road swing with a 70-46 loss at Santa Clara on Thursday.
• The Pilots fell behind 28-4 and didn’t make a field goal until the 8:33 mark of the first half.
• Junior F Ryan Nicholas was the only UP player to reach double figures finishing with 14 points and eight rebounds.
• Freshman G Bryce Pressley finished with eight points, four assists and a UP season-high six steals off the bench.
• Portland’s defense has allowed the fewest points per game since the 1985-86 season, but has allowed the last three opponents to shoot 50 percent or better.
• Only three other teams have shot better than 50 percent against UP this year.
• Nicholas, who averaged team highs of 11.5 points and 7.6 rebounds last season, is again leading the Pilots in scoring (13.3), rebounding (9.5) and double-doubles (7).
• Sophomore G Kevin Bailey missed three games with a broken nose, but returned to the lineup against LMU on Jan. 12. He is the only other Pilot averaging double figures at 11.6 points per game.
• Sophomore PG David Carr suffered a torn ACL in his right knee in the loss at Pepperdine on Jan. 5 and will be lost for the remainder of the season.
• Senior PG Derrick Rodgers has moved into the starting role, while freshmen Bryce Pressley and David Ahern have earned minutes at the point in Carr’s absence.
• Head coach Eric Reveno returns for his seventh year on The Bluff. Assistant coaches Eric Jackson and Mike Wolf also return for their seventh year, while Colin Pfaff returns for his first year as an assistant coach after two years as Director of Basketball Operations. Marshall Cho (Director of Basketball Operations) and Kevin Bruinsma (Director of Basketball Technology) are new to the staff this year.
• Portland is coming off a 7-24 season after winning 60 games from 2008-2011, a stretch that included back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time in school history.
• Portland returns three starters and 10 lettermen from last year’s team that finished eighth in the WCC with a 3-13 league record.
• PG Derrick Rodgers is the team’s lone senior.
• The Pilots were picked to finish eighth in the nine-team West Coast Conference in the pre-season coaches poll.
• The Pilots were invited to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) for three consecutive seasons from 2008-2011.
• All 11 UP graduates in the last three years and have gone on to play pro ball.
• Portland announced the signing of PG Alec Wintering (Concord, N.C./United Faith Christian Academy) to a NLI on November 14.

ABOUT SAINT MARY’S
• The Gaels (18-4, 7-1 WCC) finished the first half of conference play with a 67-63 road win at San Francisco on Wednesday.
• Junior G Jorden Page led the way with 19 points for Saint Mary’s, including two clutch free throws with four seconds remaining to ice the win.
• The Gaels lead the WCC in rebound margin (+9.2) and are second in scoring (77.7), field goal percentage (.492) and three-point percentage (.381). rebound margin
(1st, +9.2) and 3-point field goals (2nd,
• Senior PG Matthew Dellavedova, the reigning WCC Player of the Year, leads the league in assists (6.6) and is sixth in scoring (16.0).
 • Portland native and former Jesuit HS standout Stephen Holt is averaging 12.5 points and had a career-high 14 rebounds at USF.
 • Head coach Randy Bennett is in his 12th season with the Gaels and posts a 252-122 record. He has guided SMC to four NCAA Tournaments and two NIT appearances.
 • The Gaels have won the last four meetings with Portland.

TANNER RILEY SUSPENDED FOR ROAD TRIP
• Junior G Tanner Riley will serve a two-game suspension after being ejected in the second half of Saturday’s game vs. BYU.
• Riley will missed Thursday’s game at Santa Clara because of an automatic one-game suspension as mandated by NCAA rules. The University extended the suspension to include Saturday’s game at Saint Mary’s.

FRESHMEN STEPPING UP
• Freshmen guards Oskars Reinfelds and Bryce Pressley have made the most of their opportunities with playing time during the league season.
• Pressley, the son of former NBA player and Villanova NCAA Champion Harold Pressley, recorded a team season-high of six steals at Santa Clara on Thursday. He added eight points and four assists.
• Pressley is averaging 6.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 3.3 steals in the last three games.
• The Sacramento, Calif. native has also moved into the backup PG role over the last three games. He has 13 assists and four turnovers in WCC action.
• Reinfelds has started the last four games after scoring a season-high 12 points against Gonzaga and has reached double figures in three of the last nine games.
• Reinfelds also scored all 10 of his points in a second half comeback win over Bradley on Dec. 23.
• A teammate of sophomore C Thomas van der Mars at the Canarias Basketball Academy, Reinfelds was a member of the Latvian Under-18 National Team.
• Jake Ehlers has moved into the regular rotation as well, playing 10 or more minutes in the last two outings.

D’ING UP
• Portland is allowing opponents just 66.5 points per game this season.
• Only six opponents have shot better than 50 percent in a game this season, although three of those have come in the last three games
• This year’s points allowed average is the lowest at Portland since the 1985-86 season (60.7).

CARR INJURY LEAVES PILOTS THIN AT PG
• Sophomore PG David Carr went down with a torn ACL in the second half of the Jan. 5 loss at Pepperdine and will be lost for the season.
• The Portland native from Central Catholic HS averaged 4.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists while starting all 17 games for the Pilots.
• Senior Derrick Rodgers stepped up with 10 points and nine assists in his first start of the season on Jan. 12 at LMU.
• Freshman Bryce Pressley played the point for the first time last week off the bench.
• Walk-on freshman David Ahern has played in four games off the bench.
• Ahern, who was planning on redshirting the season until the injury to Carr, had four points and an assist in six minutes against Gonzaga.

BAILEY RETURNS FROM BROKEN NOSE
• Sophomore G Kevin Bailey returned to the lineup against LMU after missing the previous two games following surgery on a broken nose suffered against Colorado State on Dec. 22.
• Bailey entered the Colorado State game averaging 22.3 points in his three previous games.
• Those averages took a hit when he suffered a broken nose from an elbow 30 seconds into the game.
• Bailey missed the remainder of the CSU game and sat out the game versus Bradley the following day.
• He returned to the lineup against UTPA on Dec. 29 wearing a protective mask, but struggled to a 3-for-14 shooting day and missed the next two games following surgery.
• After adjusting in the first half at LMU, Bailey erupted for 14 second half points to lead the Pilots to the road win.
• He has reached double figures in four of the last six games.
 
HOME SWEET HOME
• The Pilots have rattled off a 47-21 record at the Chiles Center since the start of the 2008-09 season.
• The Pilots had a 19-game home winning streak snapped by Gonzaga in 2011.
• Signature home wins have come against Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Saint Mary’s three times.
• Portland finished the 2010-11 regular season with a 13-2 record at the Chiles Center for the second straight season.

HOME VERSUS ROAD
• Portland is 6-6 at home this season, but 1-8 on the road.
• At the Chiles Center the Pilots are scoring 65.6 points and allowing 64.7, while on the road UP is averaging 54.2 and surrendering 69.9 points.
• The Pilots have a +8.5 rebounding margin at home and -1.7 on the road.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
• Portland once again has one of the youngest rosters in the nation.
• The Pilots have just one senior and three juniors.

NICHOLAS ERUPTS
• Junior F Ryan Nicholas had a career night against then-No. 18 UNLV with 15 points, 19 rebounds and six assists on Dec. 4.
• The 19 rebounds are tied for the second most since Rick Raivio grabbed 20 on Jan. 18, 1979 at Air Force.
• He followed that with his third double-double of the year at No. 19 Kentucky with 15 points and 13 rebounds.
• Nicholas has led the Pilots in rebounds in all but four games this year.
• Nicknamed ‘Rhino’, he is averaging team-highs of 13.4 points and 9.5 rebounds, which is second in the WCC and 26th nationally.
• After sitting behind All-WCC forward Luke Sikma and four-year starting center Kramer Knutson as a freshman, Nicholas had a breakout sophomore year (11.5 ppg, 7.6 rpg).
• He finished the year strong with a 19-point, 14-rebound effort in the regular season finale at BYU, followed by a 24-point, 11-rebound performance in the WCC Tournament opening round win over Santa Clara.

CHILES CENTER RENOVATIONS
• The men’s basketball locker room was renovated this summer as part of a $2.5 million investment.
• A new state-of-the-art ‘Pilot Teaching Board’ was installed in the locker room, as well as modern lockers and a more spacious wet area.
• The men’s basketball coaching staff moved into new offices as part of the build-out, while the Chiles Center training and weight rooms were also upgraded.

TOUGH SCHEDULE...AGAIN
• For the second straight year, the Pilots will play one of the most challenging schedules in the nation.
• kenpom.com listed UP’s non-conference schedule strength No. 8 nationally last year.
• The 2012-13 schedule features 15 regular season games against teams that reached postseason play last year, including 10 contests against NCAA Tournament squads.
• Road games include at Kentucky (NCAA Champions), Ohio (Sweet 16) and New Mexico (Third Round).
• Portland also hosted UNLV (NCAA First Round) on Dec. 4, while the always difficult league schedule still includes road games at No. 7 Gonzaga (Third Round), BYU (Second Round) and Saint Mary’s (Second Round).
• ESPN gave Portland a rank of 10-out-of-10 on non-conference schedule strength, highest in the WCC.

PILOTS SIGN POINT GUARD ALEC WINTERING
• Portland signed point guard Alec Wintering (Concord, N.C./United Faith Christian Academy) to a National Letter of Intent on Nov. 14.
• Wintering is beginning his senior season at United Faith and is coached by former NBA point guard, Muggsy Bogues.
• Bogues isn’t the only notable point guard with ties to Wintering. Former Pilot great T.J. Campbell attended Sunnyslope HS in Arizona, where Wintering began his prep career.

13 of 16 WCC GAMES TELEVISED
• Portland announced its 2013 WCC television schedule and 13 of the 16 games will be televised live in the Portland market.
• ROOT Sports will air seven games, CSN-NW will broadcast four, ESPNU one, and BYUtv one. Three other games will be videostreamed at TV broadcast quality at WCCsports.com.