Portland Pilots (9-19, 3-10 WCC) vs. Gonzaga Bulldogs (20-6, 10-2 WCC)
Date: Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Portland, Ore.
Arena: Chiles Center
TV: ROOT Sports NW/ESPN+
Radio: 910 ESPN Portland (KMTT)
Live Coverage Links: Video I Audio I Stats
Tickets: PortlandPilots.com/Tickets

THIS WEEK
• Portland (9-19, 3-10 WCC) hosts Pacific Northwest rival Gonzaga (20-6, 10-2) on Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Chiles Center.
• The Pilots play just one game this week, before concluding the regular season with home games next week against Santa Clara and LMU.

GAME COVERAGE
• Thursday's game will be aired on ROOT Sports Northwest and ESPN+ with Rich Waltz, Dan Dickau and Jennifer Mountain on the call.
• 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: PEPPERDINE 91, PILOTS 70 (Feb. 17 at Pepperdine)
• Pepperdine drilled 15-of-24 three-pointers and shot 62 percent overall to pull away from the Pilots.
• Three players scored in double figures, led by Tyler Robertson, who had 23 points and seven rebounds. Vukasin Masic added 17 points and three steals and Bol Dengdit helped out with 12 points.
• Michael Ajayi paced the Waves with 26 points and eight rebounds.
• The Waves came out hot, drilling 9-of-12 three-pointers and using a 14-0 run to go ahead 48-24 with 4:06 left in the first half. The Pilots closed the period with a 7-0 run capped by a Masic driving layup to cut the deficit to 52-36 at the break.
• Masic scored the first four points of the second half to make it 52-40, but the Waves used a 15-2 run to push out to a 76-50 lead with under 12 minutes left and never looked back.

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 has recorded a pair of double-doubles, including a 15-point, 10-rebound effort Thursday at San Diego.
• 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 (16.1) and minutes per game (34.6), fourth in assists (3.5) and sixth in field goal percentage (.451).
• Freshman G Tyler Harris, who has earned WCC Freshman of the Week honors three times this season, has missed six WCC games with an ankle injury. He returned to log a 19-point, 10-rebound double-double against San Diego Thursday, but missed Saturday's game at Pepperdine (illness). Harris ranks sixth nationally among freshmen in rebounds (7.4), while his five double-doubles are tied for fourth best in the country for freshmen. He also ranks sixth in the WCC in rebounding and fifth in 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 fourth in threes made (34) and fifth in three-point percentage (.386).
• 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 8.6 points and 5.2 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
• Freshman F Bol Dengdit recorded his second double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds at San Diego. The prior week, he was the WCC Freshman of the Week after averaging 11.0 points and 9.0 rebounds in helping Portland to a pair of wins.
• After playing limited minutes during non-league play, Dengdit has started nine of the last ten games and is averaging 9.5 points and a team-high 6.6 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 six consecutive games, including a season-high 15 points at San Diego on Thursday.

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 56th among all active players in career scoring (1,752).
• Robertson also has 610 career rebounds and 494 assists making him one of three players nationally with totals of 1,750 points, 600 rebounds and 475 assists: Tristen Newton (UConn) 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 (4.5, 6th), assists (411, 6th), free throws made (361, 5th), scoring average (15.6, ninth), free throw percentage (.824, t-10th), total points (1,438, 8th) and threes made (151, 9th). 

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. He 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 12-of-the-last-14 games averaging 12.0 points in those starts.

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 sixth nationally in rebounds per game (7.4), while his five 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), Grand Canyon (15 pts, 10 rebs) and San Diego (19 pts, 10 rebs) and has three times been named the WCC Freshman of the Week.
• He has missed seven of the last 10 games due to injury/illness 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 10 WCC games and is fourth on the team in scoring average (8.6) and second in rebounding (5.2).

LEMKE MAKES HIS MARK
• Redshirt sophomore walk-on Coleman Lemke 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.

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 GONZAGA
• The Bulldogs (20-6, 10-2) are alone in second place in the league standings with their losses at Santa Clara (77-76) and home vs. Saint Mary's (64-62).
• Gonzaga has notable non-league wins against Kentucky, Yale, UCLA, Syracuse and Southern Cal, with losses to Purdue, Washington, UConn and San Diego State.
• Graham Ike (15.8) leads five Bulldogs averaging double figures.
• Head Coach Mark Few has led GU to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last 24 seasons and recently won his 700th career game.
 
PORTLAND-GONZAGA SERIES DETAILS
Series Information: Gonzaga leads 109-66
H / A / N: 35-45 / 22-51 / 9-13
Streak: L17
Last 5 /10: 0-5 / 0-10
Last Meeting: Gonzaga 96, Pilots 64 - Feb. 7, 2024 at Gonzaga

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.
  Get Your Tickets Now!
Secure your spot now for any upcoming Portland Pilots ticketed home event by visiting PortlandPilots.com/Tickets or by downloading the Portland Pilots App. For group and fan experience package information, email pilotsboxoffice@up.edu.

Donate Today
Fans interested in making a contribution to the Pilot Athletic Fund can do so by clicking here. Your gift directly helps our nearly 300 student-athletes as they strive to make a difference in our community and achieve academic and athletic excellence. Thank you for support of Pilot Athletics!

Follow Along With the Action
Get the latest news and information about your favorite University of Portland athletic programs by visiting PortlandPilots.com. You can also follow along for the most dynamic coverage and team-centric content by following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook, and following us on Instagram.