Portland Pilots (9-17, 3-8 WCC) at San Diego Toreros (15-11, 5-6 WCC)
Date: Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: San Diego, Calif.
Arena: Jenny Craig Pavilion
TV: ESPN+
Radio: 910 ESPN Portland (KMTT)
Live Coverage Links: Video I Audio I Stats

Portland Pilots (9-17, 3-8 WCC) at Pepperdine Waves (10-16, 3-8 WCC)
Date: Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: Malibu, Calif.
Arena: Firestone Fieldhouse
TV: ESPN+
Radio: 910 ESPN Portland (KMTT)
Live Coverage Links: Video I Audio I Stats

THIS WEEK
• Portland (9-17, 3-8 WCC) heads to Southern California for a road trip that will be instrumental in determining seeds for the upcoming 2024 Credit Union 1 WCC Basketball Championships
• The Pilots visit the San Diego Toreros (15-11, 5-6) on Thursday at 7 p.m. looking for a series split. Portland then takes on the Pepperdine Waves (10-16, 3-8) on Saturday at 7 p.m.

GAME COVERAGE
• All WCC games will be aired 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: SAINT MARY'S 76, PILOTS 51 (Feb. 10 at Portland)
• Tyler Robertson had 14 points and Bol Dengdit added 14 points, seven rebounds and two steals to pace the Pilots.
• Portland's defense limited the Gaels to 40 percent shooting overall, but the Pilots made just 32 percent. Saint Mary's also knocked down 14-of-35 three-pointers compared to just 3-of-20 for Portland.
• The Gaels set the tone with four early three-pointers to jump out to a 12-2 lead. Dengdit made a pair of free throws and a three-pointer to cut the deficit in half, but Portland went nearly five minutes without a field goal as Saint Mary's went back up by double digits and took a 38-26 lead into halftime.
• Portland could not pull any closer in the second half as the Gales slowly expanded the margin down the stretch.
• Noah Jordan made his first appearance since Dec. 9 and finished with two points in eight minutes off the bench, while leading rebounder and third leading scorer Tyler Harris (ankle) was unavailable.
 
ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Redshirt freshman F Bol Dengdit has thrived with an expanded role during league play and earned Feb. 5 WCC Freshman of the Week honors after averaging 11.0 points and 9.0 rebounds in wins over Pacific and Pepperdine. The Melbourne, Australia native recorded his first career double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds at Pacific and tallied a season-high 14 points vs. Saint Mary's on Saturday.
• Senior captain Tyler Robertson, a two-time All-WCC guard, erupted for a season-high 34 points against Santa Clara on Jan. 20, one off of his career-high. The effort matched the single-game high for all WCC players this season. Robertson leads the Pilots and ranks second in the WCC in scoring (15.9) and minutes per game (34.5), fourth in assists (3.6) and fifth in field goal percentage (.450).
• Freshman G Tyler Harris, who has earned WCC Freshman of the Week honors three times this season, has missed six of the last eight games with a lingering ankle injury. Harris ranks sixth nationally among freshmen in rebounds (7.3), while his four double-doubles are tied for fifth best in the country for freshmen. He also ranks fifth in the WCC in rebounding and blocked shots per game (0.9).
• 2023 All-WCC Freshman G Juanse Gorosito set a UP freshman record for threes made (63). In WCC games, he is tied for the league lead in threes made (32) and second in three-point percentage (.427).
• Redshirt sophomore G Vukasin Masic (Maine transfer) is second on the team in scoring (13.0) and has scored 20 or more points in six games.
• 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.
• 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. Yamanouchi-Williams is averaging 10.0 points and 5.6 rebounds and has reached double figures in five games. A sophomore transfer from Lamar, he 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 First Team All-Camino Real League in 2023 after averaging 15 points, eight rebounds and five assists. 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).
 
DENGDIT DOIN' WORK
• RS freshman F Bol Dengdit earned Feb. 5 WCC Freshman of the Week honors after averaging 11.0 points and 9.0 rebounds in helping Portland to a pair of wins last week.
• After playing limited minutes during non-league play, Dengdit has started seven of the last eight games and is averaging 8.7 points and a team-high 6.5 rebounds per game in WCC action. He recorded his first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds at Pacific on Feb. 1 and has reached double figures four consecutive games, including a season-high 14 points versus Saint Mary's on Saturday.

LEMKE MAKES HIS MARK
• Redshirt sophomore walk-on Coleman Lemke has played his most impactful minutes of his career in helping the Pilots to a pair of wins against Pacific and Pepperdine.
• Lemke played eight total minutes, including the final 4:52, of Portland's road win at Pacific on Feb. 1 and provided stellar defense.
• He then played 20 important minutes in the Pilot win against Pepperdine on Feb. 3 providing defensive energy, hitting a three-pointer and dishing out three assists with no turnovers. He ended the night with a +/- of plus-8, second best on the team.

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 16 points, six rebounds and six assists against Temple.
• Gorosito erupted for a career high 21 points on 7 of 11 three-point shooting against San Francisco on Jan. 27 and followed with a 4-for-10, 19-point effort in the win at Pacific on Feb. 1.
• The Argentina native kept the hot hand going by drilling 5 of 9 triples and scoring 19 points in a Feb. 3 win against Pepperdine.
• Gorosito has started 10-of-the-last-12 games averaging 13.4 points in those starts.

ROBERTSON PILES UP THE STATS
• Tyler Robertson scored in double figures in all but two games this year, including a UP and WCC season-high 34 on Jan. 20 at Santa Clara.
• Robertson had 28 points at Portland St. on Nov. 28, scored his 1,000th point as a Pilot versus Long Beach St., passed the 1,500-point mark for his career Dec. 16 versus Grand Canyon and ranks 58th among all active players in career scoring (1,716).
• Robertson also has 595 career rebounds and 489 assists making him one of four players nationally with totals of 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 (4.6, 5th), assists (406, 6th), free throws made (352, 5th), scoring average (15.6, ninth), free throw percentage (.821, 11th), total points (1,402, 10th) and threes made (148, 9th). 

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 and has six, 20-plus point games.
• 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.

HARRIS PUTTING UP BIG NUMBERS
• Tyler Harris has been one of the most productive freshmen in the nation this year. He ranks fifth nationally in rebounds per game (7.3), while his four double-doubles are tied for fifth best.
• His double-double of 17 points, 12 rebounds against Long Beach St. made him the first freshman in UP history to debut with a double-double. He also is 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.
• He has missed six of the last eight games with an ankle injury and is day-to-day.

YUTO ACTIVATED AND MAKING AN IMPACT
• Yuto Yamanouchi-Williams came off of redshirt status to join 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 eight WCC games and is fourth on the team in scoring average (10.0) and second in rebounding (5.6).

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 in a game 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 SAN DIEGO
• The Toreros (15-11, 5-6 WCC) have won five of their last six games after beating LMU and Pacific last week.
• USD has notable non-league wins over Arizona State, Portland State and Northern Colorado.
• Wayne McKinney III (14.9) and Deuce Turner (14.5) pace the scoring. McKinney was just named the WCC Player of the Week.
• Head coach Steve Lavin is in his second year at the helm.


PORTLAND-SAN DIEGO SERIES HISTORY
Overall: USD leads 61-36
H / A / N: 18-28 / 13-30 / 5-3
Streak: L1
Last 10 / 5: 5-5 / 4-1
Last Meeting: San Diego 85, Pilots 81 (Jan. 23, 2024 at Portland)

ABOUT PEPPERDINE
• The Waves (10-16, 3-8 WCC) snapped a six-game losing streak with an 72-63 win against LMU on Saturday.
• Pepperdine has notable non-league wins against Idaho State and UC San Diego.
• Michael Ajayi leads the WCC in both scoring (17.2) and rebounding (9.5).
• Head Coach Lorenzo Romar is in his second stint at Pepperdine and ninth year overall at the helm.

PORTLAND-PEPPERDINE SERIES DETAILS
Series Information: Pepperdine leads 67-43
H / A / N: 26-28 / 15-34 / 2-5
Streak: W1
Last 5 /10: 4-1/ 4-6
Last Meeting: Pilots 93, Pepperdine 89 - Feb. 3, 2024 at Portland
 
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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