PORTLAND PILOTS (7-22, 0-14 WCC) at SAINT MARY'S GAELS (19-10, 10-4 WCC)
Date: Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019
Time: 8:00 p.m. (PT)
City: Moraga, Calif.
Arena: McKeon Pavilion
TV: ROOT Sports NW, NBC Sports Bay Area, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain
Radio: 910 ESPN-Portland
Live Links: Video (out of market only) I Audio I Stats
Overall Series: SMC leads 67-30 (H: 21-26, A: 7-36, N: 2-4)
Last Meeting: #15 Saint Mary's 73, Portland 61 (2/17/18 at Portland)

GAME INFORMATION
Portland closes out the regular season this week with a Thursday night game at Saint Mary's, before returning home to host Santa Clara Saturday for Senior Night. Thursday's game is scheduled for an 8 p.m. tip-off at McKeon Pavilion, while Saturday will be a doubleheader with the Pilot women hosting Pepperdine at 4:30 p.m., followed by the Pilots and Broncos at 7 p.m.

TICKETS & PROMOTIONS
Tickets for Saturday's doubleheader are available by visiting PortlandPilots.com/Tickets or calling the Pilot Box Office at 503-943-GOUP (4687). Portland will honor the four players scheduled to graduate this spring: Crisshawn Clark, Xavier Hallinan, Josh McSwiggan and Franklin Porter prior to tip-off. The game will also feature the AAA Oregon Paper Airplane Toss at halftime. The fan that lands a paper airplane closest to the target on the court will take home a $500 travel gift card. Any fan that purchases tickets to the game will also be entered to with two tickets to the 2019 UCU WCC Basketball Championships.

GAME COVERAGE
Thursday's game will be televised live locally on ROOT Sports NW with Jim Kozimor and Dan Belluomini on the call. All Pilot games have radio coverage on 910 ESPN-Portland (KMTT) with Jason Swygard providing the play-by-play. Pre-game coverage begins 30 minutes prior to tip-off, with post-game coverage featuring highlights and interviews.

PORTLAND NOTES
• The Pilots played a pair of close road games last week in Southern California. On Thursday, Portland trailed San Diego by two points with 2:07 remaining, but went scoreless thereafter in a 63-52 loss. Sophomore F Tahirou Diabate recorded his second straight game in double-figures with a team-high 12 points, while freshman C Hugh Hogland added 10 points off the bench.
• In Saturday's 86-80 loss at Pepperdine, Josh McSwiggan buried a season-high six three-pointers to finish with 20 points. Portland led by three at the half, but the Waves erupted for 51 second half points to come back.
• Sophomore G Marcus Shaver Jr. leads the Pilots in scoring (15.0) and last year became the first Pilot to earn All-WCC Freshman Team honors since Taishi Ito in 2007 and first UP freshman to garner honorable mention status since Donald Wilson in 2003.
• RS-Junior G Crisshawn Clark made his season debut on Jan. 10 at BYU after having not played in an official game since the end of his freshman season at Cañada College in 2015 due to various injuries.
• Sophomore G JoJo Walker has scored 20 or more points four times this year. He leads the team and ranks eighth in the WCC in assists per game (3.5).
• Freshman C Theo Akwuba has started 23 games, ranks third in the WCC in blocked shots (1.5) and is averaging a team-high 4.3 rebounds per game.
• The Pilots return four starters and six of the team's seven leading scorers from a year ago. Portland also adds four redshirts to the lineup this season in Clark, Hogland and Takiula Fahrensohn, and junior Xavier Hallinan.
• Six other newcomers join the roster highlighted by sophomore F Jacob Tryon. The freshmen newcomers include Akwuba, F Josh Phillips, G Miles Turner, and F Wyatt Watson, while sophomore F Dillon Scarboro joined the roster in December.
• Former Portland State head coach Tyler Geving joined the Pilots as an assistant in October. Geving brings 20-plus years of coaching experience including eight at the helm of the Vikings.
• Portland signed two players to NLI's in November. 6-2 G Donyae McCaskill (St. Louis, Mo./Vashon HS) and 7-1 F/C Cody Collinsworth (Lindale, Texas/Lindale HS).
• A total of 16 former Pilots are currently playing professionally overseas, while alum Erik Spoelstra ('92) is the head coach of the Miami HEAT.
• Former NBA All-Star Terry Porter is in his third year as the head coach of the Pilots and is one of 15 Division I coaches in the nation to coach his son(s) this season.
 
ABOUT SAINT MARY'S
• The Gaels are currently alone in second place in the WCC standings and are ranked No. 39 in the NCAA NET. Saint Mary's has won four straight and 6-of-7 after a road sweep of Pacific and San Diego last week.
• SMC has a notable non-conference win against New Mexico State and close losses to Mississippi State and LSU. Among common opponents with the Pilots, the Gaels defeated Cal State Fullerton (81-66).
• Al four conference losses have come on the road to San Francisco, Pepperdine (overtime), BYU and Gonzaga.
• Junior G Jordan Ford leads the WCC in scoring (21.8), while junior F Malik Fitts is averaging 15.8 points and 7.7 rebounds in his first season on the court with the Gaels.
• Head coach Randy Bennett is in his 18th season at the helm and has guided Saint Mary's to 10 seasons of 25-or-more wins, six NCAA Tournaments and six NIT appearances.

LINEUP SHUFFLES
Portland has used 10 different starting lineups this season, most recently going with JoJo Walker, Marcus Shaver Jr., Franklin Porter, Tahirou Diabate and Theo Akwuba the last four games. Eight different Pilots have started this year with Walker and Shaver Jr. the only two Pilots to start every game.

SENIOR NIGHT MARCH 2
Portland will honor four players scheduled to graduate this spring prior to the final home game on March 2 vs. Santa Clara: Crisshawn Clark, Xavier Hallinan, Josh McSwiggan and Franklin Porter.

McSWIGGAN BREAKS OUT
Josh McSwiggan broke out a shooting slump by drilling his first six three-point attempts and finishing with 20 points in the road loss to Pepperdine on Saturday. In just two seasons on The Bluff, McSwiggan ranks 16th in school history in threes made (116) and 12th in three-point percentage (.389).

DIABATE DOING DAMAGE INSIDE
Sophomore F Tahirou Diabate recorded back-to-back double-digit scoring games against San Francisco (Feb. 16) and San Diego (Feb. 23). He finished with 10 points in just 12 minutes against the Dons, and followed with 12 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots in 17 minutes last Thursday at San Diego. Foul trouble limited him to 11 minutes on Saturday at Pepperdine. Diabate is shooting a team-high 58 percent from the field.

DIVERSE ROSTER WITH INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR
Portland has a diverse roster featuring players from 13 different states or countries. There are three native Oregonians and three Californians, but no other state or territory has more than one player on the roster. Internationally, Portland has players from Mali, New Zealand and England. States besides Oregon include Hawaii, Alabama, Arizona, California, Ohio, Idaho, Washington, Alaska and the US territory of Puerto Rico. Tahirou Diabate is from Mali, but has lived in France, the Canary Islands, and Japan and speaks five languages: Bambara (native), English, French, Spanish and Japanese.

SHAVER JR. SHOWING OUT
Marcus Shaver Jr. has reached double figures in all but three WCC games and is averaging 15.4 points in league play. Shaver Jr. established new career-highs twice during the stretch, both against Pacific. He recorded 25 points on 9-for-12 shooting on Jan. 12 in Portland, and then erupted for 30 points on 9-of-14 shooting in Stockton. In WCC games, His 1.9 threes made per game are also fifth in the league. He ranks 12th in overall scoring (15.0). Shaver became the first Pilot since Taishi Ito in 2007 to be named to the WCC All-Freshman Team last year and was the first UP freshman to earn All-WCC honorable mention honors since Donald Wilson in 2003. His 394 points last season were the third most by a freshman in Portland history. He has recorded double figures in 23 games this year and was named to the Rainbow Classic All-Tournament Team.
 
WALKER STARTED WCC PLAY STRONG
Sophomore G JoJo Walker recorded his fourth 20-point game of the season in the WCC opener at LMU. He finished with 20 points, five rebounds and five assists, while going a perfect 13-of-13 from the free throw line. He recorded back-to-back career highs in scoring early in the season with 22 points versus North Texas (11/10) and 23 points against CSUN (11/17). The Carolina, Puerto Rico native went 9-for-11 from the field against the Mean Green in Hawai'i. He then ignited Portland's comeback win against CSUN with 23 points, seven assists and zero turnovers in 40 minutes. Walker scored 15 second half points and made 6-of-8 from three-point range in the win. Walker ranks eighth in the WCC in assists (3.5).

CLARK MAKES HIS LONG-AWAITED DEBUT
Redshirt junior G Crisshawn Clark made his Portland debut off the bench and scored five points with three rebounds in 12 minutes at BYU on Jan. 10. Clark has had a circuitous route to Portland that has been plagued by injuries. He last competed in an official game during the 2014-15 season at Cañada College in San Mateo, Calif. He was at Pittsburgh for the 2015-16 season, but has had a total of three ACL surgeries in the last three years that kept him sidelined. He was ready to return to the court this year, but suffered a foot injury in preseason training that kept him out of action.

HOGLAND PRODUCING IN THE PAINT
Redshirt freshman C Hugh Hogland has been Portland's best back-to-the-basket scorer this season, and that skillset was on display against Gonzaga. The Bulldogs were forced to double-team Hogland as he made all three of his field goal attempts and finished with eight points and six rebounds. He was 4-of-6 from the field with 10 points Thursday at San Diego. Hogland had a career game Dec. 8 against Sacramento State. He went 6-for-9 from the field and scored a season-high 13 points to go with five rebounds off the bench. He is shooting 56 percent from the field. The Hawai'i native holds dual citizenship with Japan and has trained with the Japanese National Team.

AKWUBA WITH THE BLOCK PARTY
Freshman C Theo Akwuba ranks third in the WCC in blocked shots per game (1.5). He has 40 blocked shots in 27 games played which ranks seventh in Portland single-season history. Akwuba has blocked three or more shots in seven games, including a season-high five blocks on Dec. 8 against Sacramento State. He also leads the team in rebounding this season (4.3). The Montgomery, Ala. native averaged a triple double as a high school senior at 11.7 points, 14.1 rebounds and 10.4 blocked shots per game and ranked No. 2 nationally in blocks. Akwuba is pursuing a computer science degree from the Shiley School of Engineering at Portland.

WCC FINISHES NON-CONFERENCE STRONG
Nine of ten WCC programs had .500 or better non-conference records, while the league as a whole finished non-conference play with a 100-49 (.671) mark. For comparison, that is better than the Pac-12 (99-58, .631), Mountain West (76-64, .543) and Atlantic 10 (100-83, .546).

HALLINAN RETURNS
Redshirt junior G Xavier Hallinan became eligible following fall semester. The Portland native contributed three points and an assist off the bench in his season debut on Dec. 17 against Seattle U. Hallinan provided a spark as a walk-on during the 2016-17 season, when he averaged 10.7 points while starting the final six games and led the Pilots to a WCC Tournament win over San Diego by playing all 40 minutes. He returned to The Bluff last spring after a brief stint at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

BUILDING WITH REDSHIRTS
The Pilots have seven players on the active roster this season that have utilized redshirt seasons. Head coach Terry Porter wanted to emphasize player development in his vision of building the program and Portland is one of 10 schools in the nation that has seven or more active redshirt players this year.

PILOTS ADD MORE EXPERIENCE TO COACHING STAFF
Former Portland State head coach Tyler Geving joined the Pilots as an interim assistant coach in October as Kramer Knutson is on family leave. Geving brings 20-plus years of Pacific Northwest coaching experience, including eight seasons as head coach at Portland State from 2009-17 where he won 112 games and led the Vikings to the 2014 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament. He also spent four years as the Associate Head Coach of the Vikings from 2005-09, which included a pair of Big Sky Conference titles and NCAA Tournament appearances in 2008 and 2009.

PILOTS IN THE PROS
A total of 16 former Pilots are currently playing professionally overseas, while Miami HEAT head coach Erik Spoelstra played four years with the Pilots (1989-92) and was the WCC Freshman of the Year in 1989. Ben Sullivan is also an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks. Notable former Pilots still with active playing careers include: Philipp Hartwich (Huesca, Spain), D'Marques Tyson (Vitoria SC, Portugal), Alec Wintering (Windmills, Holland), Ray Barreno (Soles, Mexico), Thomas van der Mars (Aalstar, Belgium), Volodymyr Gerun (Breogan, Spain), Bryce Pressley (Bondi Ferrara, Italy), Nik Raivio (Bayreuth, Germany), TJ Campbell (Turk Telekom, Turkey), Luke Sikma (ALBA Berlin, German), Taishi Ito (Shiga L-Stars, Japan) and Pooh Jeter (Fujian S., China).

PILOTS SIGN TWO EARLY
Portland signed G Donyae McCaskill (St. Louis, Mo./Vashon HS) and F/C Cody Collinsworth (Lindale, Texas, Lindale HS) to National Letters of Intent on the first day of the early signing period on Nov. 14. McCaskill (6-3, 185) averaged 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists as a junior for Vashon HS. He helped the Wolverines to a 21-6 overall record, District 4 title, and a trip to the Missouri 4A State Basketball Championships. He had offers from Creighton, UMKC, Southern Illinois, Missouri State and Southeast Missouri State before committing to Portland. Collinsworth (7-1, 225) averaged 18.3 points, 14 rebounds and eight blocked shots per game last season for Pilot Point HS. He earned District 9-3A Co-Offensive Player of the Year honors and was named to the All-Texomaland Second Team by the Herald Democrat. The Denton-Record Chronicle selected him as the Area's Defensive Player of the Year. Collinsworth had offers from TCU, Minnesota, Wright State, Northern Colorado and Northwestern State.