Portland Concludes WCC-Opening Road Trip at BYU

Video Highlights from San Diego I Live Video I Live Audio I Live Stats

PORTLAND PILOTS (10-3, 1-0 WCC) AT BYU COUGARS (10-4, 0-1 WCC)
Date: Dec. 29, 2014
Time: 6:00 PM (PT)
Location: Provo, Utah (Marriott Center)
TV: BYUtv
Radio: Sports 910 (KMTT)

Portland vs. BYU Series
Overall: 1-10
Home: 1-4
Road: 0-6
Last: BYU 89, POR 72 (2/22/14 at BYU)

THIS WEEK
• The Pilots opened West Coast Conference play with a thrilling win at San Diego (61-58) and now conclude the road trip Monday night at BYU (10-4, 0-1 WCC).
• The game will tip-off at 6 p.m. (PT) with live television coverage on BYUtv. Pilot fan watch parties for all WCC road games will take place at Buffalo Wild Wings-Lloyd District.
• All Portland basketball games will be aired live on Sports 910 (KMTT) with pregame coverage beginning 30 minutes prior to tip-off. Bill Johnson will call the play-by-play all season long.
• Live stats, audio and video links are available at PortlandPilots.com.

ABOUT THE  PILOTS
• Sophomore point guard Alec Wintering buried a game-winning three-pointer with 0.3 seconds left to cap a come-from-behind win at San Diego (61-58) on Saturday to open WCC play.
• Portland trailed by six with 2:49 remaining, but held the Toreros scoreless the rest of the way.
• Senior F Voldy Gerun finished with 13 points and a career-high 14 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.
• The Pilots have won three straight after sweeping a two-game homestand last week with wins over Montana State (87-60) and Lewis & Clark (71-49) to conclude the non-conference schedule.
• Senior leading scorer Kevin Bailey has missed the last six games with a foot injury and is doubtful for Monday's game.
• Senior C Thomas van der Mars scored his 1,000th career point on Dec. 14 at Sacramento State. He then cracked the UP top 10 in rebounds a game later.
• Wintering ranks top six in the WCC in assists, free throw percentage, steals, three-point percentage and assist-to-turnover ratio. His 48.6 percent from three-point range tops the league.
• Freshmen guards Jason Todd and D'Marques Tyson continue to impress. Todd has played consistent minutes since Bailey went down and has provided great stability. Tyson has been an efficient scorer, including 13 first-half points at San Diego. Tyson averages a team-best 27.6 points per 40 minutes and dropped a season high 25 points in 17 minutes in the team's loss to Valparaiso.
• Senior G Bobby Sharp is finding his shooting stroke after struggling early. Sharp has made two or more three-pointers in six of the last seven games and is 12-for-27 from beyond the arc the last five games.
• Two of the Pilots three losses this season have come in overtime: versus Oregon State (65-58) and at UNLV (75-73).
• Portland is 4-1 this season in games decided by five points or less after finishing 1-6 last season with the lone win a 114-110 triple overtime thriller against BYU.
• Portland is 3-1 in true road games this season and 5-2 overall away from the Chiles Center. The lone road loss was at UNLV, where the Pilots led for a majority of the game. The Runnin' Rebels sent it to overtime with a buzzer beater and then won on a last second layup in the extra period.
• The Pilots lead the WCC in blocked shots (4.3) as van der Mars and senior C Riley Barker are both approaching the school record for blocked shots.
• The Pilots rank 26th nationally in rebounding margin (+8.1), 29th in free throw percentage (.743), 43rd in three-point percentage (.386), 54th in assists per game (15.3), and 71st in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.19).
• Portland returns four starters and seven of the top eight scorers from last year's team that finished 15-16 overall.
• Bailey, a four-year starter, averaged 16.5 points per game a year ago before missing the final seven games with a leg injury. He leads four Pilots averaging double figures this season at 13.1 points per game.
• Van der Mars is also a four-year starter and he's the 37th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points. He was a Preseason All-WCC selection by the league's head coaches and Academic All-American last year.
• Portland added five newcomers to the roster this season with four freshmen and a junior college transfer. Four of the newcomers have Pacific Northwest ties, while the fifth is 7-footer Philipp Hartwich (Cologne, Germany).
• Head Coach Eric Reveno returns for his ninth year on The Bluff. Assistant Coach Eric Jackson and Special Assistant to the Head Coach Mike Wolf also return for their ninth years, while Colin Pfaff is back for his third year as an assistant coach after two years as Director of Basketball Operations.
• Reveno added experience to his staff in the offseason with the addition of veteran NBA head coach Herb Brown and former Portland Trail Blazers video coordinator Tim Grass.
• Portland looks to return to the form it had from 2008-2011, a stretch that included back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time in school history and 60 wins over three seasons.
• The Pilots were invited to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) for three consecutive seasons from 2008-2011.
 
ABOUT BYU
• The Cougars (10-4, 0-1 WCC) opened league play with a close home loss to No. 8 Gonzaga on Saturday by an 87-80 margin.
• BYU has played an extremely challenging schedule and enters Monday No. 44 in the NCAA RPI.
• BYU's four losses have come by a total of 18 points and two were in overtime (San Diego State, Purdue). The Cougars also lost by four at home to Utah.
• Notable wins have come against UMass and Stanford.
• Senior G Tyler Haws leads the WCC and ranks eighth nationally in scoring (21.9).
• Head coach Dave Rose is in his ninth season and has a 232-79 record.