Game Notes (PDF) I Video I Audio I Stats I TicketsPortland Pilots (11-17, 5-10) vs Pacific Tigers (7-18, 5-10)Date: Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016
Tip-off: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Portland, Ore.
Arena: Chiles Center (4,852)
TV: ROOT Sports NW, CSN Calif.
Radio: 910 ESPN-Portland (KMTT)
Live Stats: PortlandPilots.com
POR vs. PAC Overall SeriesOverall: 10-23
At POR: 7-6
At PAC: 2-17
Neutral: 1-0
Last 1: PAC 70, POR 61 (Jan. 21 at Pacific)
THIS WEEK• Portland hosts the Pacific Tigers in the final home game of the regular season Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the Chiles Center.
• The Pilots will recognize Bryce Pressley and Max Livingston prior to tip-off as part of Senior Night.
• Saturday's game will also feature BrewFest in the Chiles Center Plaza from 5-7 p.m., as well has a halftime paper airplane toss to win accommodations for two to Hawaii.
GAME COVERAGE• The game will be televised live on ROOT Sports NW, CSN California and ROOT Sports SW with Tom Glasgow and Francis Williams calling the action.
• All Pilot games are on the radio on the home of the Pilots, 910 ESPN-Portland (KMTT) with a 30-minute pregame show and Jason Swygard calling the action.
• Online audio and live stats will be available at PortlandPilots.com.
ABOUT THE PILOTS • The Pilots (11-17, 5-10 WCC) dropped a heartbreaker to Saint Mary's on Thursday as Joe Rahon hit a runner with 2.7 seconds left to give the Gaels a 74-72 win. The game featured 19 ties and 16 lead changes.
• Senior G Bryce Pressley eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for his career on Thursday after finishing with a game-high 25 points. Pressley joins backcourt teammate Alec Wintering as players to join the club this season.
• Wintering was previously named the WCC Player of the Week after leading the Pilots to wins at Pepperdine and LMU on Feb. 8. Wintering has twice earned the league's weekly honor this season.
• Wintering recorded his 1,000th career point earlier this year at Saint Mary's to become the 38th player in school history to accomplish the feat.
• A three-year starter and Preseason All-WCC selection, Wintering is second in the WCC in steals (1.6), fourth in scoring (18.7) and fifth in assists (5.2). His 21.4 points per game in WCC play ranks second behind Gonzaga's Kyle Wiltjer.
• Portland is 28th nationally in three-pointers made per game (9.2). The Pilots lead the WCC in three-pointers made and rank second in steals (6.8), turnover margin (+1.7) and blocked shots (4.0).
• Portland is attempting 24.9 three-pointers per game, including 40 against Colorado State. That broke the previous Pilot single-game record of 34 attempts.
• Portland has played up-tempo basketball and attempted 80 field goals against UC Davis, the most since the team hoisted 84 on Nov. 25, 2001 against Duke.
• Coach Eric Reveno has a deep bench with nine players averaging 11 or more minutes.
• Pressley, also a three-year starter, is averaging a career-best 13.4 points per game, including 30 in the season opener versus Oregon Tech.
• Reveno returns seven lettermen from a 2014-15 squad that finished 17-16 overall and earned an invitation to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.
ABOUT PACIFIC• The Tigers (7-18, 5-10 WCC) dropped a 90-68 decision at Gonzaga on Thursday and are tied for 7th in the league standings with the Pilots. Interim head coach Mike Burns was ejected from the game and will not be able to coach on Saturday.
• As part of an internal and NCAA investigation, Pacific suspended head coach Ron Verlin and assistant Dwight Young and announced self-imposed sanctions in December that included withholding the men's basketball team from post-season competition this season, which will include the West Coast Conference Tournament, and reducing the number of basketball scholarships by a total of six for a period of three years. Burns was announced as interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
• Pacific held on for a 70-61 win in Stockton earlier this season. Portland and Pacific split last year's season series with each team winning at home.
SENIOR NIGHT• Portland will recognize its two seniors prior to tip-off on Saturday as part of Senior Night.
• Senior G Max Livingston is concluding his second season on The Bluff after spending a year at Hawaii-Pacific and then Clark College (Vancouver, Wash.). Livingston has started two games this season and appeared in 20 total games.
• Senior G Bryce Pressley became Portland's 39th 1,000-point scorer on Thursday.
• The son of former Villanova NCAA Champion and NBA guard Harold Pressley, Bryce now has 1,021 career points, but his value has been in his versatility.
• Pressley ranks seventh in UP history in three-pointers made (146), eighth in three-point percentage (.396), 12th in assists (302), 13th in career steals (112) and 20th in blocked shots (44).
JOHNSON GETS THE START• Freshman PG Jazz Johnson made his first career start in Thursday's game as the Pilots went with a four guard lineup and put Gabe Taylor in the center position.
• Johnson has earned more minutes as WCC play has progressed and is averaging 6.9 points and posting a 1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio in league play.
• Johnson was a high-scoring prep player out of Lake Oswego High School in Lake Oswego, Ore. He broke the prestigious Les Schwab Invitational tournament scoring record by averaging 35.0 points per game over four games.
WINTERING RACKS UP THE ACCOLADES• Alec Wintering has had a remarkable season and continues to establish himself as one of Portland's all-time greats.
• He picked up his second WCC Player of the Week award on Feb. 8 and also earned
CollegeSportsMadness.com National Player of the Week and the
CollegeCourtReport.com National Mid-Major Player of the Week.
CollegeInsider.com's Angela Lento also named Wintering to her weekly top five performance list among all mid-majors. He averaged 24.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 6.5 assists in UP's road sweep that week.
• The Charlotte, N.C. native scored a career-high 34 points against Pepperdine on Dec. 23 to earn WCC Player of the Week honors. That was followed by erupting for 31 points, four rebounds, four assists and zero turnovers against San Francisco on Dec. 31.
• It marked the first time a Pilot ever recorded back-to-back 30-point games.
• Wintering was a perfect 15-of-15 from the free throw line against USF, falling one short of the school record for free throws without a miss in a single game (Rick Raivio, 16-16, Jan. 5, 1980 vs. San Francisco).
• He scored 13 points on Jan. 23 at Saint Mary's to become the 38th player in school history to score 1,000 or more points.
• Wintering's 21.4 points per game in WCC play is second overall.
• He is No. 3 all-time for UP in assists per game (5.2), No. 4 in three-point percentage (.420), No. 5 in total assists (454) and No. 7 in steals (138).
MARSHALL BREAKS OUT• Junior F Jarrel Marshall had a breakout weekend in Southern California and then continued his great play with a career-high 25 points against Gonzaga on Feb. 11.
• The Palm Beach State JC transfer recorded his first double-double of the season and finished with 14 points and a career-high 12 rebounds at Pepperdine on Feb. 4. He also blocked the potential game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer.
• Marshall then finished with 13 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four blocked shots on Saturday at LMU.
• He carried that momentum into a 25-point performance against Gonzaga, including 11-of-18 from the field.
TYSON PROVIDES INSTANT OFFENSE• Sophomore G D'Marques Tyson has started the last six games and is averaging 16.0 points per game over the last nine contests.
• Tyson is averaging 4.1 threes made per game during his hot run, hitting 39-of-77 (.506) from beyond the arc.
• He erupted for a career-high 27 points in his first career start against San Francisco, including eight three-pointers.
• Tyson leads the Pilots and ranks third in the WCC with 2.8 threes made per game. That averaged has jumped to a league-leading 3.3 per game in WCC play.
• He has now drained four or more three-pointers 10 times this season.
• His 21.5 points per 40 minutes are second on the Pilot roster to Wintering (23.7).
• Perhaps most impressive has been Tyson's improvement in other areas. He was the primary defender against BYU's Kyle Collinsworth as the Pilots held him to 10 points on 4-of-17 shooting. He then grabbed a career-high eight rebounds at LMU.
FREE THROW STRUGGLES SUBSIDE• Portland entered its Dec. 31 game at San Francisco shooting just 64.3 percent from the free throw line as a team.
• The Pilots made their first 17 attempts of the game and finished 25-of-28 overall. UP now is second in the league in free throw percentage in WCC games (.769).
• Alec Wintering was shooting a career-low 67 percent entering the USF game, but now sits at 77.3 percent.
THREE-POINT THREATS• Portland drilled 15 three-pointers at LMU on Feb. 6, tying the season-high established against Alcorn State and one shy of the program record set against Idaho on Dec. 20, 2009.
• The Pilots rank 28th nationally in threes per game (9.2).
• Portland was the best three-point shooting team in the nation over a three-year period from 2009-11. That stretch included 2010 NCAA Three-Point Champion Jared Stohl and Pilot career three-point percentage leader T.J. Campbell.
LATE GAME STRUGGLES• The Pilots have struggled to close out games all season and Thursday's narrow loss to Saint Mary's was the latest heartbreaker.
• Portland previously tied the game at Pacific four times on Jan. 21 and had nine possessions with a chance to tie or take the lead come up empty.
• Portland led by 15 late at San Francisco on Dec. 31, but went scoreless over the final 3:40 as the Dons were able to pull away. The Pilots then led 61-60 with 8:06 left at Santa Clara Jan. 2, but went just 2-for-14 from the field the rest of the game in the loss.
• The Pilots had two shots to win before the buzzer in an 80-79 loss to Southern Illinois at the Corpus Christi Coastal Classic, but both missed.
• Idaho State got a tip-in in the closing seconds for a 66-65 win over the Pilots, while Weber State hit contested three-pointer with 0.8 seconds left in regulation to force overtime, which they would go on to win by a 92-82 margin.
• Portland also was tied with Boise State with 5:15 remaining, but suffered a nearly four-minute scoring drought in the 81-71 loss.
FAMILIAR FACES ON THE BENCH• Head Coach Eric Reveno picked up a pair of his former players to join the coaching staff this offseason. Mitch Johnson, a former Stanford point guard, comes on as an assistant coach, while former Pilot center Kramer Knutson also joined the staff as director of basketball operations.
PILOTS SIGN LOCAL CENTER TO NLI • Portland announced that 6-10 center Joseph Smoyer (Portland, Ore./Franklin HS) signed a National Letter of Intent and will join the Pilots next season.
• Smoyer has started for the Quakers each of the last three seasons earning All-Portland Interscholastic League First Team honors last season. He was honorable mention all-league in both his freshman and sophomore seasons.
• Smoyer joins previous signee Alec Monson to comprise the Class of 2016. Monson signed in 2014 and will return from a two-year church mission next season.
• An elite student, Smoyer is currently the senior class President and a has been admitted to the University of Portland Shiley School of Engineering.
PILOTS REMEMBER LONGTIME RADIO ANNOUNCER, BILL JOHNSON • Bill Johnson, the radio play-by-play voice of the University of Portland's men's basketball program for 23 years, died of heart failure on Sunday, Nov. 29 at the age of 71.
• A memorial service in Bill's honor took place on Tuesday, Jan. 5 at the Chapel of Christ the Teacher on the UP campus. The entire Pilots team, coaching staff, school administrators, family and friends paid their respects.
• His distinguished broadcasting career spanned six decades and included various radio and TV positions in the Portland market. He served as the basketball play-by-play voice at various times throughout his career with the Oregon, Linfield, Lewis & Clark and Sonoma State. He also was with the Portland Trail Blazers from 1974-76. Johnson's football play-by-play experience included time with Oregon, Portland State and Lewis & Clark College and most recently with Linfield College.
• Johnson had three stints with the Pilots, first with the 1977-78 team and then a 16-year run from 1986-01 which included Portland's run to the 1996 NCAA Tournament. He re-joined the Pilots for the last six seasons.
PILOTS ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP WITH COMCAST SPORTSNET• Portland and Comcast SportsNet announced a partnership that will televise eight upcoming Pilot events, including the Jan. 28 men's basketball game versus San Francisco.
• Three women's basketball games and four baseball games will also be aired.
• This is in addition to the monthly 30-minute show, 'Portside with the Pilots' which showcases student-athlete profiles, alumni spotlights, top plays, and behind-the-scenes access to Pilot Athletics.
• All episodes are archived at YouTube.com/PortlandPilots.
PILOTS INK MULTI-YEAR DEAL WITH 910 ESPN-PORTLAND• Portland and Entercom Portland, LLC will continue their men's basketball partnership for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons on 910 ESPN-Portland (KMTT). In addition to live coverage of all exhibition, regular season, and postseason games, a weekly one-hour Portland Pilots Basketball Show featuring head coach Eric Reveno will be produced every Monday night at 7 p.m. throughout the basketball season.
