Portland Pilots (9-20, 1-13 WCC) at San Francisco Dons (18-11, 7-7 WCC)
Date: Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020
Time: 7:00 p.m. (PT)
City: San Francisco, Calif.
Arena: Sobrato Center
Video: WCC Network
Radio: 910 ESPN-Portland (KMTT)
Live Coverage Links: Video I Audio I Stats

GAME INFORMATION
• Portland will conclude the regular season with a Bay Area road trip this week.
• The Pilots will visit San Francisco on Thursday for a 7 p.m. tip-off and then head to Santa Clara on Saturday for a 1 p.m. start.
• Portland will look to claim the season sweep of USF after defeating the Dons by a 76-65 margin at the Chiles Center on Jan. 4. Santa Clara was an 85-61 winner at Portland on Feb. 1.
• Both games will air live on the WCC Network.
• Thursday's game will be on the radio on 910 ESPN-Portland (KMTT), while Saturday will be aired live on 1080 The Fan. Jason Swygard will provide the commentary and the pre-game show begins 30 minutes prior to tip-off.
• All live coverage links for Portland games can be found at PortlandPilots.com.
• Follow @PilotHoops on Twitter for in-game updates.

LAST GAME
• Loyola Marymount pulled out a 66-58 win over Portland on Saturday.
• JoJo Walker led the Pilots with 12 points off the bench, while Tahirou Diabate added 11 points and six rebounds.
• LMU raced to a 27-18 halftime lead as Portland was 0-for-9 from three-point range and was outrebounded 21-11 in the first stanza.
• Walker broke a string of 13 straight missed three-pointers by Portland with back-to-back threes and a pair of free throws. Lavar Harewood then made a driving layup to pull the Pilots within two at 34-32.
• Walker converted a three-point play with 7:50 remaining to make it a 49-48 deficit, but the Pilots made just one field goal over the next seven minutes as the Lions extended the lead to double digits late.
• LMU outrebounded Portland by a 38-21 margin and shot 51 percent from the field while limiting the Pilots to 39 percent. Portland stuck around by forcing 22 LMU turnovers and committing just nine, which translated to a 20-8 edge in points off of turnovers.

PORTLAND NOTES
• Portland's nine wins have eclipsed last season's total of seven, while the 76-65 victory over San Francisco on Jan. 4 snapped a 23-game WCC regular season losing streak.
• Newcomers Isaiah White (grad transfer) and Chase Adams (freshman) have been impact contributors. White ranks 16th in the WCC in scoring (12.2) and was named the league's Player of the Week on Nov. 25, while Adams leads the WCC in steals (1.8) and ranks eighth in assists (3.7). White eclipsed the 1,000-points mark for his career at the Division I level at Pacific on Feb. 13, while Adams is 21 assists short of tying the UP freshman record.
• JoJo Walker entered the 2019-20 season as the Pilots' active leader in points, minutes played, steals, free throws made and three-pointers made after starting his first two years on The Bluff. He is second on the team in scoring (11.2).
• Due to injuries/absences, UP has used ten different starting lineups and no Pilots have started all 29 games. Malcolm Porter (knee) returned to the lineup last Thursday vs. Pepperdine after missing the previous five games, but White was lost to an ankle injury late in that game and has not returned.
• Lavar Harewood (South Carolina State) joins White as a grad transfer adding experience as Portland has no true seniors on the roster.
• The current roster features players 10 different states, countries or territories including four from California and one each from Alabama, Illinois, Mali, Maryland, New Zealand, Oregon, Puerto Rico, New York and Washington.
• The Pilots were picked to finish 10th in the WCC Preseason Head Coaches Poll.
• A total of 13 former Pilots are currently playing professionally overseas, while alum Erik Spoelstra ('92) is the head coach of the Miami HEAT and Ben Sullivan ('07) is on the Milwaukee Bucks coaching staff.
• Former NBA All-Star Terry Porter is in his fourth year as the head coach of the Pilots and is one of 11 Division I coaches in the nation to coach his son this season.
• The Pilots signed 6-5 G Zac Triplett (Melbourne, Australia) to a NLI on Nov. 13.
 
ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO
• The Dons (18-11, 7-7 WCC) lost at Gonzaga and then defeated Pepperdine in overtime at home last week to remain alone in sixth place in the league standings.
• Notable non-conference wins came against Cal, Yale, Princeton, Fresno State and UC Davis. Losses were against Stanford, Arizona State, Hawaii and Harvard.
• Four players are averaging double figures led by Charles Minlend at 14.7 per game.
• Head coach Todd Golden was promoted to head coach last offseason after Kyle Smith accepted the head coaching position at Washington State.

SENIOR DAY RECOGNITION
• Portland recognized three players on Saturday as part of the Senior Day pre-game recognition.
• Graduate transfers Isaiah White and Lavar Harewood will be completing their eligibility, while redshirt junior Malcolm Porter is scheduled to graduate in May. All three were joined by friends and family as part of the pre-game celebration.

INJURY BUG CONTINUES TO BITE
• Head Coach Terry Porter has had to juggle his lineup and rotation all season for a variety of reasons and the injury bug bit has bit hard.
• UP has featured ten different starting lineups with zero players starting every game. Only Chase Adams and Jacob Tryon have appeared in all 29 games.
• Junior G Malcolm Porter returned to the lineup on Thursday after missing five games with a knee injury, but Isaiah White went down late in regulation with an ankle injury and has not returned.
• Sophomore G Takiula Fahrensohn has missed six games due to injury this year.
• A total of eight rotation players have missed at least one game due to injury or illness this season, while C Theo Akwuba, who was Portland's starting center last season, missed the first nine games of the year before becoming academically eligible.

WHITE RECORDS 1,000TH POINT
• Isaiah White scored his 1,000th career point at the Division I level late in the first half at Pacific on Feb. 13. White scored 683 total points in two years at Maine before transferring to the Pilots as a grad student this year.
• White was named the WCC Player of the Week on Nov. 25 after averaged 22.0 points and 5.5 assists in leading the Pilots to wins against Portland State and UC Davis. He became the first Pilot to earn the weekly honor since Alec Wintering on Jan. 2, 2017.
• He scored a career-high 23 points in the win over UC Davis and has recorded three 20-point games this season. He finished with 22 points at USC and added 21 points and eight assists in the team's win at Portland State.
• He ranks ninth in the WCC in blocks per game (0.8) and 16th in scoring (12.2).
• White went down with an ankle injury late in the game against Pepperdine on Thursday and has not returned.

WALKER LEADS THE WAY
• Junior G JoJo Walker has been on a tear of late with 20 points at Pacific on Feb. 13 and 19 points at San Diego on Feb. 8. He has reached double figures in eight of the last ten games and 17 times overall this year.
• The Puerto Rico native opened WCC play strong with back-to-back quality outings.
• Against No. 1 Gonzaga, Walker finished a team-high 15 points on 4-of-6 shooting. He added five assists and zero turnovers.
• Walker followed with 19 points, six assists and five rebounds in Portland's win against San Francisco.
• Walker posted a season-high 22 points at San Jose State while shooting 8-for-12 overall and 5-of-7 from three-point range.
• Walker is the team's leading returning scorer after averaging 11.5 per game last season and entered the season as the Pilots' active leader in points, minutes played, steals, free throws made and three-pointers made. He led the team in assists each of the last two seasons and ranked eighth in the WCC with 3.3 assists per game a year ago.

DIABATE CONTINUES TO SURGE
• Tahirou Diabate is averaging 13.5 points and 5.7 rebounds over his last nine games.
• He missed the Jan. 23 at LMU due to an allergic reaction, but returned to the lineup and had a career game at Pepperdine on Jan. 25 with 25 points and seven rebounds. That bested his previous career-high of 19 points and he was an efficient 9-for-12 shooting from the field, 6-of-7 at the foul line and he drilled his only three-point attempt.
• He followed that with 18 points, six rebounds and four blocked shots at Saint Mary's on Thursday, going 7-for-8 from the field.
• Diabate finished with 14 points and eight rebounds vs. Santa Clara on Feb. 1 and 16 points and seven boards at San Diego on Feb. 8.
• He has also moved into the ninth place in UP history for career blocked shots (72).

DIVERSE ROSTER WITH INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR
• Portland's roster features players from a variety of geographic locations as four players are from the state of California, but all other Pilots hail from different states, countries or territories.
• Other Pilots came to The Bluff from Alabama, Illinois, Mali, Maryland, New Zealand, Oregon, Puerto Rico, New York, Texas and Washington.
• 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.
 
OFFENSIVE UPTICK
• The Pilots have had a much more efficient offense this year compared to last season. Portland is shooting 43.1 percent overall, up from 41.4 percent last year. The team is also at 33.3 from three-point range this year versus 32.5 last season.
• The team is also logging 13.3 assists per game this year compared to 11.5 a year ago.
• UP has shot above 45 percent from the field in all nine wins this season.

TRYON FILLS THE STAT SHEET
• Jacob Tryon matched his career-high with 15 points at Pepperdine on Jan. 25. He also added nine rebounds and four assists.
• Tryon also had a remarkable all-around game at BYU on Jan. 11 with 12 points, six rebounds and a career-high eight assists. His previous high for assists was three.
• The Temecula, Calif. native has had a number of big games this year including a 10-point, eight-rebound, five-blocked shots effort in a Dec. 16 win against Florida A&M.
• Tryon tallied his first career double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds in the win against UC Davis on Nov. 23. He then just missed another one with 10 points and nine rebounds at Seattle.
• He recorded his second double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds against Evergreen State on Dec. 13.
• Tryon came up big with 12 points off the bench in the second half of Portland's win at Portland State. He was a perfect 8-for-8 from the foul line and made both of his field goal attempts.
• The 7-footer is 18-for-47 from three-point range, ranks fifth in the WCC in blocks (0.9) and is leading the team in rebounding (5.0).

ADAMS NAVIGATING
• Chase Adams has been a difference maker at point guard and leads the WCC in steals (1.8) and ranks eighth in assists (3.7).
• His 107 assists put him on pace to challenge the UP freshman single-season record of 128 held by Darwin Cook (1977).
• He tallied a career-high 19 points against Boise State in Hawaii.
• Adams had 11 points vs. Evergreen State, 14 against Florida A&M and 15 versus Jackson State before the team's trip to Hawaii.
• Adams earned the start in the team's opener against Willamette and took over the game in the first five minutes. Adams sparked a 23-3 run with disruptive on-ball defense, collecting four steals and getting three other defections. He also scored four points and dished out three assists during the spurt.
• He followed with six points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals at USC and then earned his first start against as D-I opponent in the team's win at San Jose State.
• The 5-foot-7 speedster was a heralded youth basketball star out of Chicago and spent one year at Link Prep (Branson, Mo.) before signing with the Pilots.
• Adams is prominent on social media with 125,000 Instagram followers.

PORTER PRODUCES
• Malcolm Porter has had a breakout season averaging 9.5 points per game. He returned to the lineup on Thursday after missing five straight games with a knee injury.
• He recorded back-to-back career highs with 16 points at BYU on Jan. 11 and then 17 points against Pacific on Jan. 16.
• He came up big with 13 points, three rebounds and three steals in the team's win against San Francisco on Jan. 4.
• Porter previously set a personal best with 15 points in the win over Incarnate Word.
• He was clutch down the stretch in the Nov. 16 win against Maine. He buried a 30-footer to beat the shot clock and scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half.
• Porter followed with an efficient 13 points and four rebounds at Portland State, finishing 5-for-8 from the field and had 12 points, a career-high seven rebounds and four assists in the win against UC Davis.
• The youngest son of head coach Terry Porter, Malcolm played primarily a reserve combo guard role the previous two years.

AKWUBA SEEING DOUBLE
• Sophomore C Theo Akwuba recorded his second double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds at San Diego on Feb. 8. He previously finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots in 18 minutes at BYU on Jan. 11.

AUSSIE SHARPSHOOTER SIGNS WITH PILOTS
• Zac Triplett, a shooting guard from Melbourne, Australia, signed a National Letter of Intent with Portland on Nov. 13. He will join the Pilots as a freshman in 2020.
• The 6-foot-5, 165-pound sharp-shooter has represented Victoria on state teams at the Under-18 and Under-20 Australian National Championships.
• He helped Victoria win the Gold Medal at the 2019 School Sport Australia (SSA) National Championships in the U-18 division. The previous year, he earned All-Australian Team honors at the SSA National Championships.
• Triplett also led Maribyrnong to a Bronze Medal at the 2018 Australia School Championships for the Under-20, Division I level.