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WCC Championships Quarterfinals
Portland Pilots (12-19, 6-11) vs Gonzaga Bulldogs (23-7, 15-3)
Date: Saturday, March 5, 2016
Tip-off: 9:00 p.m.
Location: Las Vegas, Nev.
Arena: Orleans Arena
TV: ESPN2/WatchESPN
Radio: 910 ESPN-Portland (KMTT)
Live Stats: PortlandPilots.com

POR vs. GON Series
Overall: 66-97
At POR: 35-39
At GON: 22-46
Neutral: 9-12
Last 1: GON 92, POR 66 (Feb. 11 at Portland)

THIS WEEK
• The West Coast Conference Championships will run from March 4-8 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas with the league's automatic NCAA bid on the line.
• The Pilots are the No. 7 seed and will face No. 2 Gonzaga in Saturday's quarterfinals at 9 p.m. Winners will move on to Monday's semifinals with the title game on Tuesday.
• Saint Mary's earned the tournament's overall No. 1 seed, while BYU enters at the No. 3 seed.

GAME COVERAGE
• Saturday's game will be televised on ESPN2 with Roxy Bernstein and Brad Dougherty on the call. The WCC semifinals and championship game will also be televised on the ESPN family of networks.
• 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 (12-19, 6-12 WCC) were swept on the road to close out the regular season last week with losses at BYU (99-81) and San Diego (85-76).
• Senior G Bryce Pressley erupted for a career-high 37 points in Saturday's loss at USD, but the Toreros got 38 points from senior G Duda Sanadze to hold on for the win.
• Portland struggled early and fell behind by 21 at the half at BYU. Freshman G Jazz Johnson scored 17 points, all in the second half, to spark a rally, but the Cougars would hold on. Junior C Ray Barreno established career highs with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
• Junior PG Alec Wintering was named All-WCC First Team, while Pressley garnered All-WCC Second Team honors. Both players eclipsed the 1,000-point marks for their careers this season.
• Senior G Max Livingston was named to the WCC All-Academic Team, while sophomore F Gabe Taylor earned honorable mention academic honors.
• Wintering, a two-time WCC Player of the Week this season, is on pace to set Portland's single-season scoring record this year.
• A three-year starter and Preseason All-WCC selection, Wintering is second in the WCC in steals (1.6), fourth in scoring (18.4) and fifth in assists (5.0). His 20.6 points per game in WCC play ranked third overall.
• Portland is 26th nationally in three-pointers made per game (9.1). The Pilots lead the WCC in three-pointers made and rank second in steals (6.8), turnover margin (+1.5), free throw percentage (.724) and blocked shots (4.0).
• Portland is attempting 24.6 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 14.6 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 GONZAGA
• The Bulldogs (23-7, 15-3 WCC) earned a share of the WCC regular season title with Saint Mary's, but enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed after being swept by the Gaels during league play.
• The frontcourt tandem of Kyle Wiltjer (20.8 points, 6.4 rebounds) and Domantas Sabonis (17.2 points, 11.9 rebounds) were each named All-WCC First Team, while senior G Eric McClellan was named the WCC Defensive Player of the Year.
• Senior C Przemek Karnowski started five games before season-ending back surgery.
• Head coach Mark Few is in his 17th season at the helm of the Bulldogs and has led Gonzaga to the NCAA playoffs each year along with 16 WCC Championships.
• Gonzaga swept the regular season series with the Pilots. The Bulldogs won by an 84-73 margin on Jan. 9 in Spokane and then dealt the Pilots a 92-66 loss on Feb. 11 in Portland. UP's last win against the Bulldogs at the Chiles Center was an 82-73 win on Jan. 9, 2014.
 
PILOTS AT THE WCC TOURNAMENT
• Portland is 11-27 all-time at the WCC Championships and 4-7 in Las Vegas.
• Head coach Eric Reveno is 5-9, previously advancing to the semifinals in 2009, 2010 and 2015. Portland upset Saint Mary's in quarterfinals last year.
• Portland's win over Saint Mary's in 2015 was the first over the Gaels in WCC Tournament history (1-4). The Pilots are 1-3 all-time against Gonzaga in WCC Tournament play, with the victory coming in the 1996 title game.
• Visit WCCSports.com for all tournament information.
 
WINTERING, PRESSLEY EARN ALL-WCC HONORS
• Junior PG Alec Wintering and senior G Bryce Pressley earned All-WCC honors, the league announced on Tuesday. Wintering was named to the 10-player first team, while Pressley garnered second team honors.
• Wintering earned second team honors last season, while this is Pressley's first award.
• BYU senior Kyle Collinsworth was named the WCC Player of the Year, while Gonzaga's Eric McClellan took home Defensive Player of the Year honors. Saint Mary's, the WCC co-champs along with Gonzaga, had the Coach of the Year in Randy Bennett and Newcomer of the Year in Joe Rahon.

PRESSLEY ERUPTS FOR CAREER HIGH AT SAN DIEGO
• Bryce Pressley had two 30-point games this season, one to open the year against Oregon Tech, and then he closed the regular season with a career-high 37 points at San Diego. He was an efficient 12-of-19 from the field, 4-of-6 from three-point range, and made 9-of-11 free throws.
• The 37 points are a team season high this year and also tied for the sixth most points in a game by a Pilot in school history. The school record of 43 is held by Matt Houle against San Francisco during the 1992-93 season.

WINTERING APPROACHING SINGLE SEASON SCORING RECORD
• Alec Wintering fourth all-time in single season scoring with 571 points this year. He has passed Peter McKelvey (549, 1991-92). Next on the list is Jose Slaughter (577, 1980-81) and Casey Frandsen (577, 2001-02).
• The school record of 587 was established by Rick Raivio during the 1978-79 season.

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 20.6 points per game in WCC play is third overall.
• He is No. 4 all-time for UP in assists per game (5.1) and total assists (465), No. 5 in three-point percentage (.410) and sixth in steals (141).

IT'S ALL-ACADEMIC
• Portland had two players recognized on the WCC All-Academic Team.
• Senior F Max Livingston earned first team honors. He has a 3.66 cumulative GPA and will graduate this May with a degree in marketing.
• Sophomore F Gabe Taylor earned honorable mention honors. He posts a 3.18 GPA and is planning to major in business.
• During head coach Eric Reveno's tenure, the Pilots have had 18 total WCC All-Academic Team selections and Reveno has graduated every player that has completed their eligibility with the Pilots.

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 (.724).
• Alec Wintering was shooting a career-low 67 percent entering the USF game, but now sits at 78.3 percent. He has converted 173-of-221 attempts. He leads the league in total attempts by a wide margin. In fact, his 173 free throws made are more than any other player in the WCC has attempted, with the exception of Santa Clara's Jared Brownridge (180).

SENIOR NIGHT
• Portland recognized its two seniors prior to tip-off on Saturday as part of Senior Night.
• Max Livingston earned his third start of the season and dished out two assists.
• Bryce Pressley had a typically solid all-around game with 15 points, four assists, four steals and four blocked shots. Pressley was also honored pregame for becoming Portland's 39th 1,000-point scorer. His 25-point performance two nights earlier against Saint Mary's pushed him over the plateau.
• The son of former Villanova NCAA Champion and NBA guard Harold Pressley, Bryce now has 1,088 career points, but his value has been in his versatility. He ranks seventh in UP history in three-pointers made (154) and three-point percentage (.403), 11th in career steals (117), 12th in assists (312), and tied for 14th in blocks (49).

JOHNSON HAS BIG SECOND HALF
• Freshman G Jazz Johnson scored 17 second half points at BYU on Thursday.
• The Lake Oswego, Ore. native has had a solid freshman campaign, including a season high 22 points at San Francisco.
• Johnson earned his first career start on Feb. 18 versus Saint Mary's.
• A high volume prep scorer, Johnson broke the prestigious Les Schwab Invitational tournament scoring record when he averaged 35.0 points per game as a senior.

TYSON PROVIDES INSTANT OFFENSE
• Sophomore G D'Marques Tyson has averaged 11.4 points per game during WCC games.
• 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 fourth in the WCC with 2.7 threes made per game. That averaged has jumped to 3.1 per game in WCC play, second among all players..
• He has now drained four or more three-pointers 10 times this season.
• His 20.9 points per 40 minutes are second on the Pilot roster to Wintering (23.3).
• 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 in UP's home win. He grabbed a career-high eight rebounds at LMU.

BARRENO RECORDS FIRST DOUBLE-DOUBLE
• Junior C Ray Barreno logged career highs of 10 points and 11 rebounds in Thursday's loss at BYU.
• Barreno was a perfect 5-of-5 from the field and also blocked two shots.
• The New Mexico State JC transfer has started 25 games and leads the Pilots in rebounding (4.6).

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 26th nationally in threes per game (9.1).
• 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 a narrow home loss to Saint Mary's on Feb. 18 was the latest.
• 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.