Pilots Host Pepperdine in WCC Game of the Week Saturday Afternoon
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Portland Pilots (9-16, 2-8) vs. Pepperdine Waves (10-13, 2-8)
Date: Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013
Tip-off: 1:00 p.m. (PST)
Location: Portland, Ore.
Arena: Chiles Center (4,852)
Television: ROOT Sports NW, CSN-California, Time Warner Cable SportsNet
Radio: 800 AM
Overall Series: 33-55
At UP: 18-23
At PEP: 13-27
At Neutral: 2-5
Last: PEP 54, POR 47 (Jan. 5, 2013 at Pepperdine)
GAME INFORMATION
• Portland hosts the Pepperdine Waves on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Chiles Center.
• The Pilots will look for a home sweep after defeating LMU 69-60 on Thursday.
• 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. There will also be a Kids Zone with inflatables and other activities. The team will also have a post-game autograph zone for fans.
• Tickets are still available by calling the Pilot Box Office at (503) 943-7525.
GAME COVERAGE
• Saturday’s game is the WCC Game of the Week and will air live on ROOT Sports Northwest, Comcast SportsNet California and Time Warner Cable SportsNet. The game will be preceded by a 30-minute WCC Pregame Show. Ari Wolfe and Dan Belluomini will 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.
ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Portland (9-16, 2-8 WCC) snapped a six-game losing streak with Thursday’s 69-60 win over LMU
• The Pilots completed a season sweep of the Lions as junior F Ryan Nicholas led the way with 21 points on 6-of-8 shooting, including 5-of-5 from three-point range.
• Junior G Tanner Riley added 17 points off the bench, while senior PG Derrick Rodgers dished out a career-high 11 assists.
• Portland made 11-of-16 three-pointers and shot 56 percent from the field for the game.
• Portland’s defense has allowed the fewest points per game since the 1985-86 season, but has three-of-the-last-five opponents to shoot 50 percent or better.
• Only six 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 (9.0) and double-doubles (7).
• Sophomore G Kevin Bailey is the only other Pilot averaging double figures at 11.0 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 PEPPERDINE
• The Waves (10-13, 2-8 WCC) dropped an 82-56 road decision to No. 6 Gonzaga on Thursday and have lost four in a row.
• Pepperdine and Portland are tied for seventh in the league standings.
• Senior G Loren Jackson, who redshirted last season with a knee injury, leads Pepperdine in scoring at 14.1 points per game, while sophomore G Jordan Baker (11.2) and freshman F Stacy Davis (11.0) also are in double figures.
• Marty Wilson is in his second season as head coach after previously serving as an assistant under Tom Asbury .
• Wilson and the Waves were picked to finish last in the WCC by the league’s head coaches in the preseason poll.
PORTLAND-PEPPERDINE SERIES NOTES
• The Waves lead the all-time series by a 55-33 margin and 23-18 edge at Portland.
• The Pilots have won 7-of-the-last-10 meetings between the two programs.
• Coach Reveno is 10-4 against Pepperdine.
• Pepperdine came back from a 12-point second half deficit to defeat Portland 54-47 on Jan. 5 in Malibu.
• Stacy Davis had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Waves, while Oskars Reinfelds paced the Pilots with 11 points. Pilot sophomore PG David Carr suffered a torn ACL during a 21-4 second half run for Pepperdine.
RILEY BOUNCES BACK IN A BIG WAY
• Junior G Tanner Riley finished 6-for-10 from the field and drained 4-of-5 three-pointers against LMU on Thursday for 17 points off the bench.
• It was an important bounce back effort for Riley, who missed the previous two games due to a suspension from an on-court incident against BYU on Jan. 26.
• Earlier this season Riley scored a career-best 23 points on a perfect 8-for-8 from the field against Portland State.
RODGERS DISHES DOUBLE-DIGIT ASSISTS
• Senior PG Derrick Rodgers recorded a career-best 11 assists on Thursday vs. LMU.
• It marked the first time a Pilot had 10-or-more assists since T.J. Campbell had 10 against Northern Colorado on March 17, 2010.
• Rodgers broke his previous career-high of nine assists, which also came against LMU earlier this season.
• The Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. native has started the last 10 games for Portland.
NICHOLAS NEARLY PERFECT
• Ryan Nicholas was 6-for-8 from the field, 5-for-5 from three-point range and 4-for-4 from the foul line against LMU for a game-high 21 points.
• It marked the latest impressive performance for the Spokane, Wash. native.
• He 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 five games this year.
• Nicknamed ‘Rhino’, he is averaging team-highs of 13.3 points and 9.0 rebounds, which is second in the WCC and 42nd 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.
FINDING THE RANGE
• The Pilots drilled 11-of-16 three-pointers against LMU, tying a season high for makes and setting a season-high for percentage (.688).
• The three-point shot has been a struggle for Portland this season as the team ranks last in the WCC at 31.4 percent.
• The Pilots were previously the top three-point shooting team in the country over a four-year period from 2007-10.
HOME SWEET HOME
• The Pilots have rattled off a 48-21 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.
D’ING UP
• Portland is allowing opponents just 66.7 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 five games
• This year’s points allowed average is the lowest at Portland since the 1985-86 season (60.7).
PRESSLEY IMPRESSES
• Freshman guard Bryce Pressley has made the most of his opportunity 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 along with eight points and four assists.
• He followed by grabbing a season-high seven rebounds in his first career start on Saturday at Saint Mary’s.
• The Sacramento, Calif. native has also moved into the backup PG role over the last three games. He has 15 assists and 10 turnovers in WCC action.
FRESHMEN ROLES INCREASE
• In addition to Pressley, fellow freshmen Oskars Reinfelds and Jake Ehlers have also seen increased minutes in league play.
• Reinfelds has started the four games after scoring a season-high 12 points against Gonzaga and has reached double figures in three 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.
• Ehlers has moved into the regular rotation as well, playing 10 or more minutes in three-of-the-last-four outings.
• Ehlers guided Corvallis HS to consecutive state championships and was named Oregon’s 5A Player of the Year as both a junior and senior.
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.
• Walk-on freshman PG David Ahern has played in seven 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 on Jan. 12, 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 eight games.
HOME VERSUS ROAD
• Portland is 7-6 at home this season, but 1-9 on the road.
• At the Chiles Center the Pilots are scoring 66.4 points and allowing 64.1, while on the road UP is averaging 53.1 and surrendering 70.2 points.
• The Pilots have a +8.1 rebounding margin at home and -3.4 on the road.
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.
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.
PRU PATCH
• All Portland athletics team are wearing a black patch with the word ‘PRU’ on their uniforms in remembrance of longtime supporter, Rev. Chester Stephen Prusynski, C.S.C., who passed away on Sunday, April 22, 2012 at the age of 91.
• Fr. Prusynski, better known as Fr. Pru, served at the University for 46 years. He was part of the board of regents, taught in the school of business, served as a hall director, worked in student accounts, and served as on-site director of the Salzburg program before his formal retirement in 1985.
• He was perhaps best known as a tireless advocate for the athletics programs, serving for decades as both a team chaplain and ardent fan. He is a member of the UP Hall of Fame, the Fr. Chester Prusynski Award is presented annually to the school’s top student-athletes, and the soccer practice field at the Clive Charles Soccer Complex was named Rev. Chester S. Prusynski Field (affectionately known as “Pru Pitch”) in his honor.
