Portland Pilots (16-14, 7-11) vs. Saint Mary's Gaels (21-8, 13-5)
Date: March 7, 2015
Time: 12:00 PM
Location: Las Vegas, Nev.
Venue: Orleans Arena
TV: ROOT Sports NW/TWCSN/CSN CA
Radio: Sports 910 (KMTT)

POR vs. SMC Series
Overall Series: 29-60
Home: 21-23
Road/Neutral: 7-34/ 1-3
Last 5/10: 0-5/1-9
Last: SMC 68, POR 51 (2/19/15 at Saint Mary's)

ABOUT THE  PILOTS
• Portland (16-14, 7-11 WCC) enters the WCC Tournament on a four-game losing streak after being swept at home by BYU (82-69) and San Diego (78-66) last week.
• The Pilots led by as much as eight in the first half of both games, including a 41-33 lead over BYU at the half, but surrendered big second halfs both nights.
• The Pilots tied for sixth in the WCC standings with San Francisco and Santa Clara and earned the six seed by virtue of going 3-1 in head-to-head matchups.
• Alec Wintering was named to the All-WCC Second Team, one of only two underclassmen to earn first or second team honors.
• Seniors Thomas van der Mars and Kevin Bailey earned honorable mention honors.
• Van der Mars is UP's all-time leader in blocked shots (117) and is also top 10 in rebounds, field goal percentage and games started.
• Wintering leads the WCC in three-point percentage (.508) and also ranks top five in assists and assist-to-turnover ratio.
• Bailey's 1,351 career points ranks eighth in UP history.
• Van der Mars has been named a First Team Academic All-America, the first Pilot men's hoopster to earn such an honor. He was joined on the WCC All-Academic Team by senior C Riley Barker.
• The Pilots rank 34th nationally in assists per game (15.1), 35th in three-point percentage (.387), 52nd in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.23) and 55th in rebounding margin (+4.1).
• 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 on Jan. 22.
• 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.
• Portland is 6-3 this season in games decided by five or less after going 1-7 last season.
• 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 signed three high school seniors to NLI's in the fall: 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 and Maker recently scored 49 points in a loss to Rainier Beach (Wash.) as part of a Pacific Northwest Tour with Newington College.

PILOTS AT THE WCC TOURNAMENT
• Portland is 10-25 all-time at the WCC Championships and 3-5 in Las Vegas.
• Head coach Eric Reveno is 4-8, advancing to the semifinals in 2009 and 2010.
• Portland's lone WCC Tournament Championship came in 1996.
• Visit WCCSports.com for all tournament information.
 
ABOUT SAINT MARY'S
• The Gaels (21-8, 13-5 WCC) lost at Santa Clara in the final seconds on Saturday to fall into a tie for second-place with BYU and are the No. 6 seed for the tournament.
• Senior C Brad Waldow and senior G Kerry Carter earned All-WCC First Team honors.
• Waldow averages 19.1 points and 9.0 rebounds per game, while Carter (12.6) and senior G Aaron Bright (10.8) also post double-digit scoring.
• Head coach Randy Bennett is in his 14th year and has led the Gaels to eight postseason appearances and five NCAA Tournaments in the last 10 seasons.
• Saint Mary's swept the regular season series with a 74-64 win in Portland and 68-51 decision in Moraga.

THREE PILOTS GARNER ALL-WCC RECOGNITION
• Sophomore PG Alec Wintering was named to the All-WCC Second Team and was one of only two underclassmen among the top 15 players recognized (Santa Clara sophomore Jared Brownridge earned first team honors).
• Senior C Thomas van der Mars picked up his second straight All-WCC honorable mention award, while senior G Kevin Bailey also was honorable mention.

IT'S ALL-ACADEMIC
• Under Coach Reveno the Pilots have thrived academically.
• Thomas van der Mars became the first men's basketball player in program history to earn CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team honors last week. He earned third team recongition last year and joins Rick Raivio (1978, 1980) as the only Pilots to receive Academic All-America awards.
• Van der Mars also picked up his third WCC All-Academic Team honor this week and was joined by teammate Riley Barker on the first team.
• Ryan Nicholas was the recipient of the 2014 Division I-AAA Athletic Director's Association Postgraduate Scholarship and joined van der Mars on the 10-player national all-academic team.
• The team boasts a 100% graduation rate, a near-perfect rating in the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate, and 16 WCC All-Academic selections since 2007.
 
INJURY REPORT
• Senior C Riley Barker suffered a season-ending knee injury early in the Jan. 8 win against Santa Clara.
• Senior G Kevin Bailey returned to the lineup on Jan. 8 after missing the previous eight games with a foot injury suffered in the first half against Portland State on Dec. 3.
• Junior G Bryce Pressley missed the Jan. 8 and Jan. 10 games with a concussion, but returned to the lineup the following week.
• Senior G David Carr is out for the year with a torn ACL from the offseason.

PRESSLEY HEATING UP
• Junior G Bryce Pressley has been on fire from three-point range of late, hitting at least one triple in 14-of-the-last-16 games.
• He has made three or more three-pointers in seven of the last ten games, going 26-for-50 during that span.
• Last season, Pressley finished second in the WCC in three-point percentage (.457) and he currently ranks fourth in the league (.454) this year.

VAN DER MARS ESTABLISHES SCHOOL BLOCKS RECORD
• Senior C Thomas van der Mars now owns the Portland record for career blocked shots with 117. He passed previous leader Tim Frost (2000-02, 103) in the second half at Santa Clara on Feb. 7.
• The Pilot big man blocked a career-high five shots at Pacific, the first time a Pilot has blocked five shots in a game since the 2006-07 season. He ranks third in the WCC in blocked shots per game, trailing only San Diego's Jito Kok — a former teammate at the Canarias Basketball Academy — and LMU's Marin Mornar.
• Van der Mars already joined the 1,000-point club earlier this season and has cracked the top 10 in school history for rebounds, field goal percentage and games started.

LINEUP ADJUSTMENTS GO FULL CIRCLE
• Portland opened the season with a starting lineup of Wintering, Pressley, Bailey, Gerun and van der Mars for the first seven games and went 6-1 in those games.
• The Pilots have had to juggle the rotation due to various injuries to key players since, using eight different starting lineups in the last 23 games.
• The original starting five was back on the court together in the 10 previous games prior to Senior Day (Bobby Sharp replaced Pressley).
• Wintering and Gerun are the only players to start al 30 games.

WINTERING DELIVERS BUZZER BEATER... AGAIN
• Sophomore PG Alec Wintering buried his second game-winning three-pointer this WCC season when he beat the buzzer on Jan. 22 for a 72-69 win over Pacific. The shot made SportsCenter's Top 10 plays for the night at No. 2.
• Wintering opened WCC play by burying a step-back three-pointer to win the game at San Diego on Dec. 27 with 0.3 seconds left.

VOLDY IS VERY GOOD
• Senior F Volodymyr "Voldy" Gerun recorded a career-high with 15 rebounds at Gonzaga on Jan. 29.
• Gerun has been a key contributor all season and is one of only two Pilots to start at 30 games.
• He was named to the Challenge in Music City All-Tournament Team and had 13 points and 14 rebounds in the WCC opener at San Diego.
• He erupted for a career high 21 points on 10-of-12 shooting against SIU-Edwardsville. That came six days after recording his first career double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds at San Jose State.
• Gerun joined the Pilots last season after a brief stop at West Virginia, but playing behind a pair of three-year starters averaged just 11.2 minutes per game.
• He dropped 15 pounds over the last offseason and it showed as he logged 41 active minutes against SJSU.
• Gerun earned the starting nod in place of the graduated Ryan Nicholas and is averaging 8.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, and is shooting 50 percent from the field.
• He ranks fourth in blocked shots (1.2) and seventh in rebounding in the WCC.
 
OFFENSIVE EFFICIENCY
• The Pilots rank third in the WCC and 99th nationally in points per game (70.3)
• Portland's 38.7 percent from three-point range ranks 35th nationally.
• Portland has also shot 70 percent or better from the free throw line in 18 games.

WINTERING HAVING BREAKOUT CAMPAIGN
• Alec Wintering has recorded eight 20-point games this year, including five times during WCC play.
• His career-high 30 points at BYU was the first 30-point game for a Pilot since Jared Stohl tallied 30 against Idaho on Dec. 22, 2009.
• He also finished 15-of-17 from the free throw line, marking the first 15 makes from the foul line since Darren Cooper versus Oregon on Dec. 22, 2005.
• Wintering dished out a season-high 12 assists at Sacramento State and followed up with 24 points and five assists at UNLV.
• He had 27 points with six assists against Portland State on Dec. 3 after going 7-of-12 from the field and 11-of-13 at the foul line.
• That effort bettered his career-high of 24 points at San Jose State on 7-of-11 from the field, 4-of-4 from three-point range, and 6-of-6 at the foul line.
• The Charlotte, N.C. native is shooting the ball with much more confidence this season. He leads the WCC in three-point percentage (.508).
• Wintering also ranks second in the league in assists (5.9), third in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.4), sixth in steals (1.4) and eighth in FT percentage (.800). 
• Wintering had a phenomenal freshman campaign in which he started the first 27 games before a leg injury sidelined him the final four games of the season – Portland went 0-4 without him.
• Wintering ranked third in the WCC in assist/turnover ratio (2.2), fourth in assists (4.5), fifth in steals (1.6) and ninth in FT percentage (.833) last year.
• His 13 assists against San Francisco were the most by a Pilot against a D-I school in program history, and one shy of the school record.
 
BARKER'S SEASON, COLLEGIATE CAREER OVER
• Riley Barker stepped up big this season, including a season-high 14 points and seven rebounds versus UNLV in his first start this year.
• He added 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots at BYU.
• One of the top shot blockers in school history, he was on pace to break the school record before a season-ending knee injury versus Santa Clara on Jan. 8.
• The Surrey, British Columbia native concludes his career with 91 blocked shots which ranks third all-time.
 
VAN DER MARS REACHING MILESTONES
• With 20 points during a win at Sacramento State on Dec. 14, Thomas van der Mars became the 37th player in school history to score 1,000 career points.
• He now has 1,218 career points in addition to owning the school blocked shots record (117) and holding down fourth place in career field goal percentage (.555).
• A native of The Netherlands, van der Mars is also sixth on the UP career rebounding charts (811).
• Van der mars had a dominating performance against Portland State on Dec. 3 with 19 points and 14 rebounds. He was 9-for-9 from the field.

BLOCK PARTY
• Portland has used its size and experience to become the No. 1 shot blocking squad in the WCC.
• Portland averages 4.5 blocked shots per game, tops in the WCC and 62nd nationally.
• Thomas van der Mars and Voldy Gerun rank third and fourth in the WCC respectively, while Riley Barker was also top five in the league prior to his injury.

CLOSE CALLS
• Portland has played four overtime games this season and are 6-3 in games decided by five points or less.
• Portland opened the season with an overtime win at San Jose State, lost in OT at home to Oregon State, and on the road to both UNLV and Pacific.
• Games at Sacramento State and versus Murray State in Nashville also came down to the closing seconds with the Pilots pulling out both wins.
• At home versus Pacific on Jan. 21, Alec Wintering beat the buzzer with a three-pointer for a 72-69 win. Wintering also won the game at San Diego with a three-pointer with less than one second remaining.
• Last season, the team went 1-7 in games decided by five or less and was 1-1 in overtime games.

FRESHMEN TAKING ADVANTAGE
• Freshman G Jason Todd has played effective minutes since moving into the regular rotation.
• Todd is averaging 4.7 points and 3.3 rebounds per game while shooting 50 percent from the field and 44 percent from three-point range. More importantly, Todd has been one of the team's best perimeter defenders and can play multiple positions on the wing or as a stretch four.
• Todd, the two-time Washington Gatorade State Player of the Year at Mill Creek HS, grabbed a season-high eight rebounds versus Montana State and scored 12 points versus Santa Clara.
• Freshman F Gabe Taylor was pressed into more court time following Riley Barker's injury. The Portland native responded with a season-high 12 points in 26 minutes of action against Santa Clara. He followed with eight points and three rebounds against USF and finished 9-of-10 from the field in the two games.
• Taylor led Valley Catholic School to consecutive Oregon 3A State Titles playing under former Pilot assistant coach, Joel Sobotka.
• Freshman G D'Marques Tyson has also had a great impact. He scored a season-high 25 points off the bench in Portland's loss to Valparaiso at the Challenge in Music City. Tyson finished the game 9-for-11 from the field and 6-for-8 from three-point range. He also had 13 first half points in the road win at San Diego and 12 points against San Francisco.
• Tyson is third on the team with 33 three-pointers made this season and is shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc.
• The Bothell, Wash. native played last season at Quality Education Academy in North Carolina after helping lead Lakeside HS to the Washington 3A title game as a junior.

BAILEY IS BACK
• Senior G Kevin Bailey got off to a fast start this season, but injured his foot against Portland State and missed the next eight games.
• He returned to the lineup off the bench on Jan. 8 versus Santa Clara and finished with four points in 11 minutes of action. He followed with 20 points against USF and a season-high 28 points against Pepperdine on Saturday.
• Prior to the injury, Bailey made some big plays early in the season. He hit a clutch jumper and two free throws late against Murray State to clinch the win against the Racers and also ignited Portland's second half rally against San Jose State with 13 points over the final 10:29, including the game-tying three-pointer with 3:14 remaining.
• Bailey has 1,351 career points which ranks eighth in school history.

STAFF ADDITIONS
• Head Coach Eric Reveno bolstered his staff with an infusion of NBA-level expertise in the offseason.
• Herb Brown, who has 45 years of coaching experience including four NBA Championship rings, joined the bench as an assistant coach.
• Former Portland Trail Blazers Video Coordinator, Tim Grass, was hired as Portland's Video Technology Coordinator.
 
EARLY NLI SIGNINGS
• Jazz Johnson (Lake Oswego, Ore/Lake Oswego HS), Colin Russell (Folsom, Calif./Folsom HS) and Chiir Maker (Sydney, Australia/Newington College) signed NLI's in November and will join the Pilots as freshmen next year.
• Johnson (6-0, 175) is a combo guard that earned Oregon 6A All-State honorable mention honors last season. He was a Three Rivers League First Team selection in his first year with the Lakers after leading the league in scoring. Last week he broke the Les Schwab Invitational scoring record by averaging 35.0 points per game against elite national competition.
• Russell (6-8, 220) is an active post presence and has raised his profile over the last two seasons while playing for highly competitive prep and club teams. He helped Folsom High School win the California Division 2 Northern Region Championship and led the team to a runner-up finish at the state championship.
• Maker (6-7, 190) is a versatile wing with good size and athleticism. Throughout his prep career at Newington College he put up big numbers while displaying a nice shooting stroke with good range. He his prep team recently concluded a 10-game tour through the Pacific Northwest highlighted by Maker scoring 49 points against Rainier Beach (Wash.).

PORTLAND VERSUS RANKED OPPONENTS
• Last season's win versus Gonzaga was the seventh all-time for Portland against an Associated Press Top 25 program and the first since defeating No. 22 Minnesota at the 2009 Anaheim 76 Classic. The victory snapped an 11-game losing streak against ranked opponents.
• Portland is now 7-57 all-time against AP Top 25 ranked opponents and has never defeated a top 10 opponent.

DEFENSIVE ASSIGNMENTS
• Portland has been focused on defense throughout the preseason and early regular season.
• The coaching staff is tracking how many times per game the Pilots record three consecutive defensive stops... The goal? Seven is the target per game. 

TAKING CARE OF THE ROCK
• The Pilots committed a season low seven turnovers on Jan. 22 against Pacific and then bettered that with just five giveaways on Jan. 24 versus Saint Mary's.
• Portland ranks 52nd nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.23).