Complete Release (pdf) I at Gonzaga:
Live Video ($) Live Stats I vs. BYU:
Live Video Live Stats
PORTLAND PILOTS (10-17, 5-9 WCC)
at GONZAGA BULLDOGS (24-5, 14-1 WCC)
Date: Thursday, February 28, 2013
Tip-off: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Spokane, Wash.
Arena (Capacity): McCarthey Center (6,000)
Video ($): GoZags.com
Stats: GoZags.com
POR vs. GON
Overall Series: 27-39
Here: 14-17
There: 10-20
Neutral: 3-2
Last 5/10: 0-5/1-9
Last 1: GON 82, @POR 51 (January 14, 2013)
PORTLAND PILOTS (10-17, 5-9 WCC)
vs. BRIGHAM YOUNG COUGARS (19-8, 10-4 WCC)
Date: Saturday, March 2, 2013
Tip-off: 2:00 p.m.
Location: Portland, Ore.
Arena (Capacity): Chiles Center (4,852)
Video/Audio (free): PilotsVideo.com
Stats: PortlandPilots.com
POR vs. BYU
Overall Series: 4-11
Here: 2-5
There: 2-5
Neutral: 0-1
Last 5/10: 0-5/3-7
Last 1: @BYU 79, POR 64 (February 21, 2013)
THIS WEEK
• The Portland Pilots play their final two West Coast Conference regular season games this week as they travel to Spokane, Wash., on Thursday night to face first-place Gonzaga before heading home to host BYU on Saturday.
• Tip-off against the Bulldogs is set for 6 p.m. at the McCarthey Center.
• Saturday’s season finale against the Cougars will begin at 2 p.m. at the Chiles Center.
LAST WEEK
• The Pilots dropped their lone WCC game last week, a 79-64 set-back against BYU in Provo, Utah on Thursday night.
• Freshman Annika Holopainen scored a team-high 15 points to lead five Pilots in double figures.
• Portland scored 46 points in the second half.
ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Freshman Annika Holopainen was named the WCC’s Player of the Week on Feb. 11 after dropping 26 points at Saint Mary’s (Feb. 7); Holopainen averaged 15.5 points per game that weekend, shot 57.1 percent from the floor and grabbed a career-best eight boards at Pepperdine (Feb. 9).
• Sophomore Kari Luttinen nabbed two straight WCC Player of the Week awards in December.
• Junior Amy Pupa’s 19 rebounds against Pepperdine (Jan. 31) are a career-high and missed tying a program single-game record by one.
• Seven different players have scored in double figures this season, six players have led the team in scoring and three Pilots, Annika Holopainen, Kari Luttinen & Amy Pupa, have games with at least 20 points; Holopainen scored a team season-high of 29 points at USF (Jan. 12).
• Portland’s game against Boston College on Nov. 24 marked the 1,000th game in the history of the women’s basketball program, which dates back to 1977.
• Portland does not have one senior on its roster.
• Junior Cassandra Brown is utilizing her redshirt year after undergoing off-season surgery.
• Junior Alexis Byrd missed six games in November due to a hamstring injury.
• Three of Portland’s five freshmen originally hail from overseas, with Ellen Nurmi and Annika Holopainen both coming to The Bluff from Finland; Sara Ines Hernandez is from Italy.
• Head coach Jim Sollars has more WCC wins (164) than any other coach in league history and he’s been named league coach of the year an unprecedented five times.
• Sollars, who was the head coach at Portland State before coming to The Bluff, is four wins away from historic win No. 400 at the NCAA Division I level.
“SENIOR” DAY
• Despite not having any seniors on their active roster, the Pilots will still celebrate senior day on Saturday before Portland hosts BYU at 2 p.m. at the Chiles Center.
• Portland will honor former guard Sarah Griffin, who spent two years with the Pilots before retiring from the court due to back issues.
• Since then, Griffin has remained active within the program, managing the women’s basketball social media accounts as well as handling play-by-play duties for all home video/audio broadcasts on PortlandPilots.com; she’s also worked as an administrative assistant for the coaching staff.
• Griffin, a native of Lake Oswego, Ore., played in four career games, which all came during her freshman season in 2009-10; she finishes with a perfect 1.000 career free throw percentage.
THE WCC TOURNEY
• The WCC Championships return to the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., for the fifth straight season, and the tournament is set to run from Wednesday, March 6, until Monday, March 11.
• The Pilots, who will most likely grab either the #6 or #7 seed at the tourney, are 15-20 all-time at the WCC Championships in 21 seasons.
• Last season the Pilots received the seventh seed and defeated Santa Clara 90-76 behind 32 points from Cassandra Brown in the second round; USD eliminated the Pilots in the quarterfinals.
• The Pilots won their only tournament championship in 1994.
CLEANING UP THE GLASS
• Junior Amy Pupa had a historic night at the Chiles Center on Jan. 31 when she had 19 rebounds against Pepperdine, which missed tying a UP program record by one.
• Sarah Green holds the program single-game record at the NCAA DI level, which she set back in 1998 when she grabbed 20 boards.
• Lorena Legarde holds the all-time record of 24 rebounds, which she accomplished in 1982 when the Pilots played at the NAIA level.
• Pupa, a junior, is Portland’s top rebounder and ranks third in the WCC with an 7.9 per game average.
• She has recorded 10+ rebounds in a game eight times this season.
• Against USF (Feb. 4), Pupa scored a career-best 21 points, to go along with 11 boards for her second career double-double.
SOPHOMORE SURGE
• Sophomore Kari Luttinen is putting up a team-best 12.3 points per game, she’s led the team in scoring 13 times and she’s scored at least 20 points three times.
• She was also named the WCC’s Player of the Week twice in December and she ranks eighth in the league in scoring.
• Luttinen, who was named to the WCC’s All-Freshman Team last year, poured in a career-best 23 points during a win over Nevada on Dec. 14.
• During a win at Idaho on Nov. 16, Luttinen recorded her first career double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
CAREER MILESTONES
• Head coach Jim Sollars, who was the head coach at Portland State before coming to The Bluff, is just four wins away from historic win No. 400 at the NCAA Division I level.
• Sollars, who’s in his 27th year at the helm of the Pilots, has compiled 373 wins all-time at UP and he has 396 wins total as a DI head coach.
• Sollars also has more WCC wins (164) than any other coach in league history and he’s been named conference coach of the year an unprecedented five times.
• He has 550 wins overall at Portland, Portland State and Wenatchee Valley CC combined, he’s led the Pilots to three WCC titles and one WCC Tournament title, and he’s guided Portland to four NCAA Tournaments.
FROM ACROSS THE POND
• Finland natives and freshmen Ellen Nurmi and Annika Holopainen are both adapting quite well to the Pacific Northwest.
• Holopainen has increased her scoring average to 10.1 points per game, she’s reached double figures 13 times and she has games of 26 and 29 points.
• Holopainen is putting up 11.4 points per game against conference foes, which ranks second among WCC freshman.
• Nurmi is tops on the Pilots in three-pointers made (41), she’s scored in double figures 10 times, scored a career-best 19 points against San Diego (Jan. 5) and is putting up 8.2 points per game.
