Portland Pilots (16-11, 7-8) at Pacific Tigers (10-17, 2-13)Date: Feb. 21, 2015
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Stockton, Calif.
Venue: Spanos Center
Video: TheW.tv
Radio: Sports 910 (KMTT)
POR vs. PAC SeriesOverall Series: 10-21
Home/Road: 7-6/2-15
Neutral: 1-0
Last 5/10: 2-3/4-6
Last: POR 72, PAC 69 (1/22/15 at Portland)
THIS WEEK• Portland snapped its four-game win streak with a 68-51 loss at Saint Mary's on Thursday.
• The Pilots visit Pacific at 7 p.m. and video will be available at TheW.tv with Zack Bayrouty and Bob Thomason on the call.
• 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.
• Pilot watch parties for all WCC road games will be hosted by Buffalo Wild Wings-LLoyd District.
ABOUT THE PILOTS• Portland trailed by just two at halftime, but surrendered an 18-0 run to Saint Mary's midway through the second half in a 68-51 loss on Thursday. The loss snapped a four-game win streak for the Pilots.
• Senior C Thomas van der Mars recorded a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
• The Pilots maintain sole possession of fifth place in the WCC standings a half game ahead of San Diego.
• Portland swept Pepperdine and LMU at home last week, after picking up a big road sweep at San Francisco and Santa Clara the previous week.
• During the four-game win streak, Portland held all four opponents to under 40 percent shooting, but the Gaels broke that streak by shooting 54 percent overall on Thursday.
• Senior C Thomas van der Mars is UP's all-time leader in blocked shots (107) and is also top 10 in rebounds, FG pct., and games started.
• Wintering leads the WCC in three-point percentage (.508) and also ranks top five in assists, steals, and assist-to-turnover ratio.
• Bailey has 1,280 career points which ranks 10th in school history.
• The Pilots rank 31st nationally in assists per game (15.3), 32nd in three-point percentage (.388), 33rd in rebounding margin (+5.3), and 48th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.24).
• Wintering has two game-winning three-pointers this season. He opened WCC play at San Diego with a three with 0.3 seconds left for a three-point win and then beat the buzzer in Portland's 72-69 win versus Pacific.
• Bailey missed eight games with a foot injury suffered against Portland State on Dec. 3 before returning to the court versus Santa Clara on Jan. 8.
• A four-year starter, Bailey averaged 16.5 points per game a year ago before missing the final seven games with a leg injury.
• Van der Mars is a four-year starter and was an Academic All-America last year.
• Portland is 6-2 this season in games decided by five points or less after finishing 1-7 last season.
• Portland returns four starters and seven of the top eight scorers from last year's team that finished 15-16 overall.
• 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).
• Freshmen Jason Todd, D'Marques Tyson and Gabe Taylor have grown into key rotation players early in the WCC season with Todd and Taylor each earning their first career start at Pepperdine.
• Head Coach Eric 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.
• The Pilots have signed three high school seniors to NLI's already: Jazz Johnson (Lake Oswego, Ore/Lake Oswego HS), Colin Russell (Folsom, Calif./Folsom HS) and Chiir Maker (Sydney, Australia/Newington College). Johnson broke the Les Schwab Invitational scoring record by averaging 35.0 points per game against elite national competition earlier this year. Russell is a McDonald's All-America nominee. Maker recently scored 49 points in a loss to Rainier Beach (Wash.) as part of a Pacific Northwest Tour with Newington College.
ABOUT PACIFIC• The Tigers (10-17, 2-13 WCC) is in last place in the WCC standings with an eight-game losing streak that began earlier this season at Portland.
• Pacific gave No. 3 Gonzaga a tough battle on Thursday before falling by an 86-74 margin.
• Guards T.J. Wallace (13.6) and Dulani Robinson (9.3) lead the Tigers.
• Second year head coach Ron Verlin compiled an 18-16 record and 6-12 mark in the program's return to the WCC last season. Verlin was an assistant under long-time head coach Bob Thomason before taking over.
• The Pilots won a thriller in Portland earlier this season when Alec Wintering drilled a buzzer-beating three-pointer for a 72-69 victory. Last year, the team's split the season series with the Pilots claiming a 72-64 win in Portland and 68-65 loss to close the regular season in Stockton.
