Portland Pilots (7-13, 1-4 WCC) at Loyola Marymount Lions (9-10, 2-3 WCC)
Date: Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: Los Angeles, Calif.
Arena: Gersten Pavilion
TV: ESPN+
Radio: 910 ESPN Portland (KMTT)
Live Coverage Links: Video I Audio I Stats

THIS WEEK
• The Pilots (7-13, 1-4 WCC) dropped an 85-81 decision at home to the San Diego Toreros on Tuesday in a re-scheduled game and will now head to Loyola Marymount on Thursday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Gersten Pavilion.
• The Pilots will then return home to host the San Francisco Dons on Saturday at 5 p.m.
 
GAME COVERAGE
• All Portland WCC games will be aired live on ESPN+.
• Radio for all Portland men's basketball games is on 910 ESPN Portland (KMTT) with Jason Swygard and Joel Sobotka calling the action. Pre-game coverage begins 30 minutes prior to tip-off and ends with a 30-minute post-game show.
• Live coverage links for Portland games can be found at PortlandPilots.com.
• Follow @PortlandMBB on Twitter and Instagram for the latest team content.

LAST GAME: SAN DIEGO 86, PILOTS 81 (Jan. 23 at Portland)
• Tyler Robertson led four Pilots in double figures with 17 points, four assists and two steals, but fouled out with 3:47 left in a close game as USD pulled it out late.
• Yuto Yamanouchi-Williams tacked on 15 points and Chris Austin chipped in 14 points off the bench.
• UP racked up 15 assists on 29 made field goals and shot 52 percent from the field, but the Toreros shot 53 percent overall and made 12-of-25 three-pointers.
• After playing to a 12-12 tie, Portland went on a 14-0 run with 13:08 left in the first half, culminating in a bucket from Vukasin Masic, to take a 26-12 lead. USD picked up the defensive pressure and took a 40-38 lead into halftime.
• UP seized a 48-42 lead with 15:59 to go in the contest and maintained their lead until a San Diego three tied it a 62-62 with 7:21 remaining. Another Torero three gave them a 70-67 lead and the Pilots tied the game on four occasions late but couldn't get over the hump.

ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Sophomore F Yuto Yamanouchi-Williams was pulled off of redshirt and made his Pilot debut with 12 points and 10 rebounds in the league opener vs. Pacific on Jan. 6. He is averaging 13.2 points and 6.2 rebounds after reaching double figures in four of the five games he has appeared in.
• Senior captain Tyler Robertson, a two-time All-WCC guard, erupted for a season-high 34 points against Santa Clara on Saturday, one off of his career-high. The 34-point effort matched the single-game high for all WCC players this season. Robertson leads the Pilots and ranks second in the WCC in scoring (16.9) and fourth in assists per game (3.9) and FG percentage (.494). He also leads the WCC in minutes per game (34.7).
• Freshman G Tyler Harris, who has earned WCC Freshman of the Week honors three times this season, missed the last two games with a sprained ankle. Harris ranks fifth nationally among all freshmen in rebounding (7.6), while his four double-doubles are tied for fourth best in the country for freshmen. He also ranks fourth in the WCC in rebounding and blocked shots per game (1.0).
• 2023 All-WCC Freshman Team guard Juanse Gorosito set a UP freshman record for three-pointers made (63) last year and found his stroke at the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii by burying four threes against UMass and five versus Temple. He has reached double figures four of the last seven games and is 20-for-49 (.408) from three-point range over that span.
• The Pilots welcomed the return of Chris Austin to the active roster this season. Austin, who averaged 14.4 points for the Pilots two seasons ago, took a medical redshirt last year after breaking his leg in the final game of the 2021-22 season.
• Portland has integrated 2022-23 redshirts Vukasin Masic (Maine transfer) and freshmen Bol Dengdit to the rotation. Masic is averaging 11.7 points per game, while Dengdit has scored a season high 12 points twice in the last seven games and earned his first career start at Santa Clara (1/20).
• Yamanouchi-Williams, a sophomore transfer from Lamar, made 24 starts last year and averaged 6.9 points and a team-high 7.1 rebounds per game.
• Portland welcomes four freshmen to the 2023-24 roster. G Tyler Harris (Hayward, Calif.) led Granada HS to the 2023 CIF NorCal Division I championship and a runner-up finish at the State Division I Boys Championship with a 17-point and 10-rebound effort in the title game loss to Notre Dame. G Vincent Delano (Phoenix, Ariz.) played for nationally recognized Arizona Compass Prep as a senior. F Cyprian Hyde (Oceanside, Calif.) Earned All-North County Coastal First Team honors as a senior after leading the team to the second round of the 2023 CIF San Diego Section Division II Championships. G Jude Harris (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) was a First Team All-Camino Real League in 2023 after averaging 15 points, eight rebounds and five assists per game. Delano, Hyde and Jude Harris are redshirting the 2023-24 season.
• The Pilots are represented by seven different countries, tied for third in the nation behind Arizona and Hawaii. Portland players hail from the United States (10), Australia (2), Argentina (1), Japan (1), Montenegro (1), Netherlands (1) and Serbia (1).
 
ROBERTSON PILES UP THE STATS
• Tyler Robertson has scored in double figures in each of the first 20 games, including a UP and WCC season-high 34 on Saturday at Santa Clara.
• Robertson also had 28 points at Portland State on Nov. 28, scored his 1,000th point as a Pilot in the opener vs. Long Beach State, passed the 1,500-point mark for his career Dec. 16 versus Grand Canyon and ranks 58th among all active players in career scoring (1,639).
• Robertson also has 573 career rebounds and 473 total assists making him one of just four players nationally with career totals of at least 1,500 points, 550 rebounds and 450 assists: Tristen Newton (UConn), Andrew Taylor (Miss. State) and Baylor Scheierman (Creighton)
• Last season, Robertson and Jalen Pickett (Penn State) were the only Division I players to average at least 15 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game. Robertson also led the WCC in assists, assists per game and free throws made (163).
• Robertson is Top 15 on the UP career charts in assists per game (4.7, 5th), assists (390, 6th), free throws made (342, 7th), scoring average (15.8, eighth), free throw percentage (.820, 11th), total points (1,325, 10th) and threes made (139, 13th). 

GOROSITO GETS GOING
• One of the top three-point shooters in the WCC a season ago, Juanse Gorosito struggled to find his stroke early in the year, but came on strong in Portland's appearance at the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii over Christmas weekend drilling 4-of-9 threes against UMass and then 5-of-11 from downtown against Temple. He finished with a season high 16 points, six rebounds and six assists against Temple.
• Gorosito matched his season-high with 16 points Saturday at Santa Clara.
• The Argentina native broke Portland's freshman record for three-pointers made last season with 63.

YUTO ACTIVE AND IMPACTFUL
• Yuto Yamanouchi-Williams came off of redshirt status and joined the active roster for the start of WCC play after Alimamy Koroma was deemed academically ineligible.
• He wasted no time in making an impact by recording a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds in his debut against Pacific.
• Yamanouchi-Williams has started all five WCC games and is second on the team in scoring average (13.2) and rebounding (6.2).

HARRIS PUTTING UP BIG NUMBERS
• Tyler Harris has been one of the most productive freshmen in the nation this year. He ranks fourth nationally in rebounds per game (7.6), while his four double-doubles are fourth best.
• His double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds against Long Beach State made him the first freshman in UP history to debut with a double-double. He also became the first true freshman to start a season-opener in Shantay Legans' seven years as a head coach.
• Harris also recorded double-doubles against UC Riverside (22 pts, 12 rebs), Wyoming (11 pts, 10 rebs) and Grand Canyon (15 pts, 10 rebs) and has three times been named the WCC Freshman of the Week.

MASIC MAGIC
• Vukasin Masic has shown flashes of brilliance in his return to action this season after being denied an immediate eligibility waiver last year by the NCAA.
• Masic erupted for a career high 32 points in Portland's Dec. 9 road win at North Dakota.
• In his Pilot debut, Masic scored 22 of his 25 points in second half to lead the team to a 78-73 season-opening win versus Long Beach State. His 25 points were the most ever scored by a Portland player in their debut.

SETTING PROGRAM RECORDS
• In his first two seasons leading the Pilots, head coach Shantay Legans has already began rewriting the program record books.
• The Pilots have scored the most single-season points in school history each of the last two years. Portland scored 2,524 points in his inaugural 2021-22 season and then broke that record with 2,566 total points last year.
• The 2021-22 team set a new free throw percentage record (.791), while last year's 317 three-pointers made shattered the previous record of 289 (2016-17).
• The Pilots set a single game scoring record in a 122-78 victory over Willamette on Nov. 11, 2021, eclipsing the 115 scored against St. Martin's in 1978.
• Portland also broke the program's single game three-pointers made twice, most recently with 19 versus San Diego at the 2023 WCC Tournament, which also was a tournament record.
• Individually, Robertson broke the school record for free throws made when he converted 22-of-24 against Portland State on Nov. 11, 2022, eclipsing a record held by Jim Winters (20-of-23) which dated back to a matchup with Seattle U on Feb. 12, 1956. He also set the program single-game assists record with 15 against New Orleans on Dec. 10, 2022.
• Mike Meadows and Robertson also became the first Pilots to ever record triple-doubles. Meadows had one against Willamette, while Robertson posted a 31-point, 11-rebound, 11-assist triple-double in a win over LMU. He added another triple-double last year with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists against Multnomah.
 
ABOUT LOYOLA MARYMOUNT
• The Lions (9-10, 2-3 WCC) have opened WCC play with wins against Pepperdine and Pacific as well as losses to Saint Mary's, Santa Clara and San Francisco
• LMU has notable non-league wins over UNLV, UTEP and Jackson State.
• Dominick Harris leads five Lions averaging double figures at 14.8 per game.
• Head coach Stan Johnson is in his fourth year at the helm.

PORTLAND-LMU SERIES HISTORY
Overall: LMU leads 59-51
H / A / N: 32-21 / 17-31 / 2-7
Streak: L2
Last 10 / 5: 2-8 / 1-4
Last Meeting: LMU 79, Pilots 60 (Jan. 26, 2023 at LMU)
 
WE'RE RIVERBOAT PILOTS, NOT AIRPLANE PILOTS!
• Though the original nickname that students chose in a 1935 contest resulted in "Chinooks" (after the Native American tribe that inhabited the area, and the largest of the salmon species in the Willamette River), the "Pilots" was chosen by presidential fiat. From that day forward, The Bluff had a new mascot, and he was Wally Pilot.
• When the University changed its name from Columbia University (its earliest sports teams were known as the Cliff dwellers or the Columbias), to the University of Portland in 1935, the name and University had already begun to adapt a more "nautical motif," suitable for a campus site overlooking the Willamette River. At the same time, the Pilot athletic teams became associated with Wally (a stylized riverboat pilot), and the pilot's wheel became the logical logo.
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