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PORTLAND PILOTS (14-12, 7-8 WCC)
at #24 GONZAGA BULLDOGS (23-4, 13-2 WCC)
Date: Saturday, February 22, 2014
Tip-off: 2:00 p.m.
Location: Spokane, Wash.
Arena (Capacity): McCarthey Center (6,000)
Online Video ($)/Stats: GoZags.com
Online Audio: PortlandPilots.com
 
POR vs. GU
Overall Series: 27-41
Here: 14-18
There: 10-21
Neutral: 3-2
Last 5/10: 0-5/0-10
Last 1: GU 56, @POR 24 (Jan. 3, 2014)
 
THIS WEEK
• The Pilots play their final road game of the regular season this week when they travel to Spokane, Wash., to face first-place and 24th-ranked Gonzaga at 2 p.m. at the McCarthey Athletic Center on Saturday.
 
LAST WEEK
• The Pilots dropped a pair of WCC road games last week at BYU and at San Diego.
• On Thursday in Provo, Utah, the Pilots trailed the Cougars by just three at the half, but BYU would pull away in the second half en route to a 67-43 win.
• Jasmine Wooton had a team-high 11 points and Amy Pupa had a team-best 10 boards.
• Then in San Diego, Calif., on Saturday, the Pilots nearly came back from a large first-half deficit, but the Toreros prevailed 59-52.
• Both Pupa and Cassandra Brown scored 17 points for the Pilots on identical 7-for-10 shooting; Pupa was 3-for-3 on three-pointers and registered a season-high in points.
 
ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Head coach Jim Sollars, who is in his 28th year at the helm of the Pilots, will retire following the 2013-14 season.
• Senior Amy Pupa is quickly climbing up Portland's all-time rebound charts, currently ranking sixth all-time with 696 career boards; she's also third all-time for Portland at the NCAA DI level (since 1986-87).
• Junior Kari Luttinen is approaching the 1,000 career point plateau, entering the weekend with 889 career points; Luttinen is looking to become the 22nd career 1,000-point scorer in program history.
• Luttinen is also currently ninth all-time at UP with 103 career three-pointers.
• The 72-51 win over No. 24 San Diego on Jan. 8 was Portland's first win over a ranked opponent since Dec. 6, 2003, when the Pilots topped No. 20 Oregon 76-58 at the Chiles Center.
• Jasmine Wooton exploded for a career-high 36 points during a 73-65 win at Pacific on Dec. 28; it's the most points scored by a Pilot since Martha Sheldon also scored 36 in 1991.
• Cassandra Brown has scored 20 or more points a team-best six times this season; Brown, who mainly comes off the bench for the Pilots, is averaging a career-best 13.8 points per game, which ranks 11th in the WCC.
• Brown, a redshirt-junior, missed all of last season while recovering from off-season surgery.
• Earlier this season Kari Luttinen became the first UP player to score 20 points or more in three straight games since January of 2012; Luttinen posted 20 points against Columbia (Nov. 29), 21 against Oregon State (Dec. 6) and a career-high 25 points vs. Boise State (Dec. 8).
• Five different Pilots (Brown, Luttinen, Wooton, Byrd, Thompson) have scored 20 or more points in a game this season.
• Portland leads the WCC with 169 three-pointers made this season.
• On Nov. 15 in Seattle, Portland notched the program's first ever win against the Washington Huskies with a 91-77 victory.
• The Pilots matched a program record with 15 three's against the Huskies, while the 91 points were the most for the Pilots since also scoring 91 against Washington State in 2010.
• Portland freshman Hannah Mattson was named the 2012 Alaska State High School Player of the Year; she missed most of her senior year with an injury.
 
SOLLARS SAYS GOODBYE
• Jim Sollars, who is in his 28th year as head coach of the Pilots, will retire following the 2013-14 season.
• Sollars, who also served the university as a history professor during his first 11 years on The Bluff, ranks second all-time in WCC wins (171) and he's been named league coach of the year five times.
• He has won 388 games at UP, 411 victories overall at the NCAA Division I level, has posted a 565-509 career record as a collegiate head coach and he led the Pilots to four straight NCAA Tournaments (1994, 1995, 1996 & 1997) in the mid-1990's.
• Under Sollars' leadership at Portland, 39 players have earned All-WCC honors, four players have been named the WCC Player of the Year, and he has coached two Pilots (Laura Sale and Deana Lansing) to honorable mention All-America status.
• He's also guided 40 WCC All-Academic Team selections, 14 CoSIDA Academic All-Region Team picks and one WCC Scholar Athlete of the Year, while two athletes earning first team CoSIDA Academic All-America honors.
 
CHASING HISTORY
• Senior Amy Pupa will go down in history as one of Portland's all-time best rebounders.
• The forward enters the weekend with 696 career boards, which is the sixth most rebounds in the history of the UP program, and she's only six shy of the fifth spot on that list.
• Pupa has the third most rebounds for Portland at the NCAA Division I level (since 1986-87) and she has a chance to catch UP's top DI rebounder Khalila O'Rielly-Williams (2000-04), who amassed 755 career boards.
 
THAT'S A LOT OF POINTS
• Junior guard Jasmine Wooton had a historic day when she erupted for 36 points during a 73-65 win at Pacific on Dec. 28.
• The 36 points are the most scored by a Pilot since Martha Sheldon also scored 36 back in 1991, and Wooton is the first Portland player to score 30 or more points since Cassandra Brown dropped 32 on Santa Clara at the WCC Tourney on March 1, 2012.
• Wooton also hit 10 free throws against the Tigers, the most by a Pilot since Alexis Byrd in 2011, and she hit a career-best six three-pointers.
 
THAT TOO IS A LOT OF POINTS
• Portland has scored 80 or more points six times this year after accomplishing that feat just once last year.
• The 91 points against Washington were the most points scored by the Pilots since also putting up 91 points against Washington State in 2010.
• Cassandra Brown, Alexis Byrd, Kari Luttinen, Cassandra Thompson and Jasmine Wooton all have games of 20 or more points this season; CB has reached the 20-point plateau six times, while Luttinen has scored 20 or more points five times.
 
DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK
• Cassandra Brown is enjoying a break-out season after missing all of last year while recovering from off-season surgery.
• The redshirt-junior guard leads the Pilots and ranks 11th in the WCC in scoring (13.8 ppg) and she's scored 20 or more points a team-best six times.
• During the 91-77 win at Washington, she registered her first career double-double with 28 points and 12 boards, while also burying six three-pointers.