Portland Pilots (3-5, 0-0 WCC) at Kent State Golden Flashes (6-2, 0-0 MAC)
Date: Friday, Dec. 6, 2024
Time: 4 p.m. (PT)
Place: Kent, Ohio
Arena: M.A.C Center
TV: ESPN+
Radio: 910 ESPN Portland (KMTT)
Live Coverage Links: Video I Audio I Stats

THIS WEEK
• The Pilots will look to start a winning streak as they visit the Kent State Golden Flashes on Friday at 4 p.m. (PT).
• Portland will then return to the Chiles Center for a four-game homestand that leads into West Coast Conference Play.
 
GAME COVERAGE
• Friday's game will be aired ESPN+.
• Radio for all Portland men's basketball games is on 910 ESPN Portland (KMTT) with Jason Swygard 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 X and Instagram for the latest team content.

LAST TIME OUT: @Pilots 101, Denver 90 (2ot)
• Vukasin Masic led five Portland players in double figures with 27 pints as the Pilots knocked off the Denver Pioneers 101-90 in double overtime at home Sunday. Masic added five rebounds and four assists. Austin Rapp tacked on 20 points, six rebounds and two blocks, while Vincent Delano chipped in as well with 18 points, six rebounds and five assists off the bench. Junior center Jermaine Ballisager Webb was also a difference maker off the bench with 14 points and five rebounds.
• The Pilots led 39-30 at the half but were trailing 66-56 late before surging to force OT on a Masic free throw. Denver beat the first OT buzzer with a layup to send it to double overtime where Portland took control.
• Portland took advantage of fantastic ball movement in Sunday's game, piling up 21 assists on 31 made field goals. Delano's five assists were the most for the Pilots and Chris Austin also added five assists of his own.

RAPP GARNERS WCC FRESHMAN HONORS
• Freshman F Austin Rapp was named the WCC Freshman of the Week after dropping 20 points, six rebounds and a pair of blocked shots in 41 minutes against Denver on Sunday.
• Rapp has started all eight games for the Pilots and is averaging 12.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. He is second in the WCC among all freshmen in scoring and tops in rebounding thus far.

AUSTIN REACHES 1,000 POINTS
• Graduate G Chris Austin eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for his career on Nov. 12 at Oregon. He entered the game needing 10 points and finished with 11.
• The Pasadena, Calif. native has navigated injuries throughout his seven total years of college athletics, three at Fordham and the last four at UP. A thumb injury ended his freshman season early and then a broken leg at the end of the 2021-22 campaign at Portland sidelined him for the entire 2022-23 season.
• With 122 total games played, including 90 games started, Austin is by far the most experienced player on the roster and has become a vocal leader this year.

FRESHMEN PHENOMS
• The Pilots regularly have regularly had four freshmen on the court at the same time throughout the first few weeks of the season and gotten consistent production from the group.
• Between the four active true freshmen and three redshirt freshmen, the group has accounted for 46 percent of Portland's total scoring this year. Austin Rapp is Portland's second leading scorer (12.9), while redshirt freshman PG Vincent Delano and freshman G Mikah Ballew add 8.3 and 5.3 points per game off the bench, respectively.
• Rapp has been a regular among Australian Youth National Teams and led his regional team (Victoria) to the Under-20 Australian National Championship with 32 points and 13 rebounds in the title game, including the buzzer-beating game-winning shot.
• Delano erupted for season highs of 18 points, six rebounds and five assists against Denver and already has reached double figures four times this season.
• Ballew has played quality crunch time minutes all season.
• Todd Jones has started eight games and battled foul trouble, but is still contributing 5.1 points and 5.0 rebounds per outing. Jones is a three-star prospect that helped Isidore Newman High School win three consecutive Louisiana State Championships. The high-flying Jones was the 2024 District MVP and four-time District Defensive Player of the Year.
• Freshman G Jinup Dobuol impressed with 10 points in nine minutes off the bench against Princeton at the Myrtle Beach Invitational.

MASIC MAKING WAVES
• Vukasin Masic is Portland's top returning scorer after averaging 12.5 points and 4.2 rebounds per game last season and is leading the way at 15.3 points per game this year. He missed the Lewis & Clark season opener (ankle) but returned to lead the team with an efficient 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting against UC Santa Barbara.
• The Belgrade, Serbia native scored a season high 27 points in the win against Denver for his second 20-point game of the year.
• Masic showed flashes of brilliance last year in his return to action after sitting out the 2022-23 season following the denial of an immediate eligibility waiver by the NCAA. 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 ever eventual NCAA Tournament participant Long Beach State. His 25 points were the most ever scored by a Portland player in their debut. Masic also erupted for a career high 32 points in a road win at North Dakota and had six 20-point games.

AUSSIE CONNECTIONS
• Coach Legans and Portland basketball has had great success with players from Australia and that trend continues this season. Recent graduate Tyler Robertson, a three-time All-WCC selection, is close family friends with Austin Rapp. Rapp, Max Mackinnon, Bol Dengdit and Carlin Briggs make four Aussies on the 2024-25 roster.
 
INJURY UPDATES
• RS sophomore F Bol Dengdit (knee) has eased back into the lineup the last five games after missing early season games against UC Santa Barbara and Oregon. He moved back into the starting rotation the last game versus Denver for the first time this year. Dengdit is looking to build on his stellar 2024 WCC campaign where he averaged 9.3 points and 7.1 rebounds during league play.
• Redshirt freshman G Kelson Gebbers (back) made his official Pilot debut against Ohio at the Myrtle Beach Invitational and appeared against as well Princeton after missing the first two weeks of the season. He drilled his first shot attempt, a corner three, late against Ohio and then grabbed a rebound, dished out an assist and collected a steal in 16 minutes versus Princeton.
• Freshman G Carlin Briggs (knee) is going to miss the 2024-25 season.

IMPACT TRANSFERS
• Elon junior transfer Max Mackinnon had a stellar line of 20 points, six rebounds and five assists in his Pilot debut against Lewis & Clark. Mackinnon was named the 2022 Coastal Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year at Elon where he averaged 11.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists as a freshman and followed with 12.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists last season. Prior to college, Mackinnon helped Queensland win back-to-back Gold Medals at the U-20 Australian Championships.
• Redshirt junior C Mezziah Oakman (7-0) and junior C Jermaine Ballisager Webb (7-1) are expected to make an impact inside this year for the Pilots. Oakman started the first two games and finished with 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting in the season opener. He sat out last season at UC Santa Barbara and was previously the MVP of the Coast Conference North Division while at City College of San Francisco. He averaged 11.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and shot 63.6 percent from the field as a sophomore.
• Ballisager Webb made significant contributions off the bench in road games at Oregon and Long Beach State, before breaking out with 14 points and five rebounds against Denver on Sunday. He previously played two years at American University and averaged 7.4 points and 3.8 rebounds last season.

STAFF CONTINUITY
• Portland returns its entire primary coaching staff from last season. Coach Legans, Associate Head Coach Bobby Suarez and Assistant Coach T.J. Lipold have now been together for eight years dating back to their time at Eastern Washington. Arturo Ormond returns for his second year on The Bluff. Ormond previously coached Legans during his time as a player at Fresno State.

SETTING PROGRAM RECORDS
• In his three years leading UP, Shantay Legans is already rewriting the program record books. The Pilots have the two highest single-season scoring records in school history. Portland scored 2,524 points in his inaugural 2021-22 season and then broke that record with 2,566 total points the following season. The 2021-22 team also established a new free throw percentage record (.791), while the 317 three-pointers made in 2022-23 shattered the previous record of 289 (2016-17).
• The Pilots set the game scoring record in a 122-78 win over Willamette (11/11/21), eclipsing the 115 scored vs St. Martin's in 1978. Portland also broke the program's single game three-pointers made record with 18 against VMI (12/3/21).
• Tyler Robertson broke the school record for free throws made when he converted 22-of-24 against Portland State (11/11/22), eclipsing a record held by Jim Winters (20-of-23) which dated back to a matchup with Seattle U (2/12/56). He also set the program single-game assist record with 15 against New Orleans (12/10/22).
• Mike Meadows and Robertson became the first Pilots to record triple-doubles. Meadows had one against Willamette (11/11/21), while Robertson posted a 31-point, 11-rebound, 11-assist stat line in a win over LMU (2/12/22).
 
ABOUT KENT STATE
• The Golden Flashes (6-2) have notable wins against Louisiana (70-66), Towson (65-54) and Kennesaw State (67-60). The team's lone losses have been to nationally-ranked Auburn (79-56) and UC Irvine (51-39).
• VonCameron Davis leads Kent State players in scoring at 14.5 ppg, while Morgan Safford adds 11.3 per game.
• Head coach Rob Senderhoff is in his 13th year at the helm and has never had a losing season.

PILOTS-KENT STATE ALL-TIME SERIES HISTORY
Series: Kent State leads 1-0
H / A / N: 0-0 / 0-1 / 0-0
Streak: Kent State W1
Last: Kent State 77, Pilots 65 (Nov. 14, 2022 at Kent State)

WE'RE RIVERBOAT PILOTS, NOT AIRPLANE PILOTS!
• Though a 1935 student contest resulted in the nickname "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.
 
POOH JETER INDUCTED IN UP HALL OF FAME
• University of Portland inducted nine new members to its Athletics Hall of Fame on September 27 including basketball legend Eugene "Pooh" Jeter.
• Jeter is No. 2 on the Portland career scoring charts (1,708) and also ranks in the top five all-time in field goals made (550), three-pointers (200), free throws (408), free throw percentage (.846) and is eighth in total assists (346).
• He garnered All-WCC First Team honors in 2004 and 2006 and was honorable mention all-league in 2005. He also led Portland to a 72-68 road upset against Gonzaga at the Kennel in 2003 with a team-high 18 points as a freshman.
• Following his time on The Bluff, Jeter enjoyed a remarkable professional career that spanned 18 seasons including six different countries and one year with the NBA's Sacramento Kings. Following his retirement from pro basketball in 2023, Jeter joined the Portland Trail Blazers where he still serves as a player development coach and Assistant General Manager for the Rip City Remix.
 
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