Box Score Video HighlightsRadio Highlights (.mp3)PORTLAND, Ore. --- Senior forward Volodymyr Gerun scored a career high 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds to help the Portland Pilots defeat the SIU-Edwardsville Cougars, 75-53, Saturday night before 1,828 fans at the Chiles Center. Portland improves to 3-0 with the win, while the Cougars fall to 1-2.
Gerun, coming off of his first career double-double last Sunday at San Jose State, made 10-of-12 field goal attempts. He is averaging 14.3 points and 9.0 rebounds in Portland's three wins to open the season.
The game was never in doubt as Portland jumped out to a 13-3 lead within the first five minutes. Portland would increase the margin 46-25 on a three-pointer by freshman D'Marques Tyson late in the period and carried a 46-28 lead into halftime.
Gerun made three consecutive baskets early in the second half to give the Pilots their largest lead of the game at 56-29.
It was a balanced and unselfish team effort for the Pilots as all 13 active players saw court time and no player logged more than 25 minutes of action.
Senior guard Kevin Bailey continued his fast start to the season with 12 points, five rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. Wintering added nine points, six assists and two steals and Tyson came off the bench to score eight points in just 11 minutes.
Portland racked up 20 assists with 12 turnovers, while the Cougars had just eight assists and 14 giveaways. The Pilots also dominated the boards with a 44-28 rebounding margin.
The Cougars shot 39 percent from the field, while Portland finished at 48 percent overall. The Pilots drilled 8-of-14 three-pointers in the first half and finished 9-of-22 from beyond the arc for the game.
Portland will now prepare for The Challenge in Music City, which will feature three games in three days over Thanksgiving weekend in Nashville, Tenn. The Pilots will take on Murray State on Friday at 5:30 p.m. (Pacific), Drake on Saturday at 3 p.m. and then Valparaiso on Sunday at 11 a.m. Friday's game will have an audio stream on PortlandPilots.com, while the Saturday and Sunday games will be broadcast live on Sports 910 (KMTT) with pregame coverage beginning 30 minutes prior to tip-off.
GIF Highlights:
Volodymyr Gerun scored a career-high 21 points on 10-12 shooting, none more exciting than this monster alley-oop from Bobby Sharp.
The Pilots started hot and never looked back, erupting to a 21-5 lead early. This layup by Kevin Bailey put them up 10-3.
The Pilots were on fire from the three-point line in the first half, shooting 8-14. Alec Wintering went a perfect 3-3 from outside in the half.
Portland's four freshmen combined for 44 minutes, with D'Marques Tyson scoring eight points, including two threes in the first half.
Thomas van der Mars ignited the large student section crowd early this massive first half dunk – he finished with six points and six rebounds.
