Portland Pilots (10-20, 4-11 WCC) vs. LMU Lions (12-17, 5-10 WCC)
Date: Saturday, March 2, 2024
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Place: Portland, Ore.
Arena: Chiles Center
TV: ESPN+
Radio: 910 ESPN Portland (KMTT)
Live Coverage Links: Video I Audio I Stats
Tickets: PortlandPilots.com/Tickets

THIS WEEK
• Seeding for next week's Union 1 West Coast Conference Basketball Championships is on the line Saturday when the Pilots (10-20, 4-11 WCC) host the LMU Lions (12-17, 5-10) in the final regular season game.
• The winner secures the No. 6 seed and opening round bye, while the loser will fall to No. 8 and play the opening round game Thursday vs. Pacific.
• Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. and will be preceded by a Senior Night ceremony honoring Tyler Robertson.


GAME COVERAGE
• The game is on ESPN+ with Bryan Sleik 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.

LAST GAME: PILOTS 80, SANTA CLARA 75 - OT (Feb. 29 at Portland)
• The Pilots had four players score in double figures, led by Tyler Robertson with 32 points and 10 rebounds. Bol Dengdit added 10 points and 13 rebounds, while Juanse Gorosito tacked on 15 points and Vukasin Masic had 11 points.
• The Pilots won despite competing with a seven-player rotation as Robertson playing all 45 minutes and Dengdit rested just 28 seconds.
• Portland led by as much as 16 in the first half before taking a 33-25 into the break. A pair of Chris Austin threes gave the Pilots a 44-27 edge, but the Broncos chipped away and tied it at 65 on a free throw with 15 seconds left to force OT.
• Santa Clara took its first lead of the night with a three-pointer to open the extra period, but Robertson responded with seven straight points and the Pilots pulled away to snap a 16-game losing streak in the series.

ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Redshirt freshman F Bol Dengdit has thrived with an expanded role during league play. The Melbourne, Australia native recorded has recorded three double-doubles and is putting up 9.2 points and 6.7 rebounds during WCC play.
• 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 (16.7), first in minutes per game (35.2), fifth in assists (3.5) and seventh in field goal percentage (.451).
• Freshman G Tyler Harris, who has earned WCC Freshman of the Week honors three times this season, has missed seven WCC games with an ankle injury. He returned to log a 19-point, 10-rebound double-double against San Diego on Feb. 15, and had 12 points against Gonzaga on Feb. 22, but missed the game against SCU on Thursday. Harris ranks sixth nationally among freshmen in rebounds (7.3), while his five double-doubles are tied for fifth best in the country for freshmen.
• 2023 All-WCC Freshman G Juanse Gorosito set a UP freshman record for threes made (63) last season. In WCC games, he is fifth in three-pointers made (37).
• Redshirt sophomore G Vukasin Masic (Maine transfer) is second on the team in scoring (12.7) 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. He has missed the last two games (hip) and is questionable for Saturday. 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).
 
ROBERTSON TO BE RECOGNIZED FOR SENIOR NIGHT
• Tyler Robertson will be honored for Senior Night prior to tip-off Saturday.
• The fifth-year senior has 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 55th among all active players in career scoring (1,802).
• Robertson also has 628 career rebounds and 500 assists making him one of three players nationally with totals of 1,800 points, 600 rebounds and 500 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 (4.4, t-7th), assists (417, 6th), free throws made (368, 5th), scoring average (15.8, t-8th), free throw percentage (.820, 11th), total points (1,488, 6th) and threes made (156, t-6th). 

DENGDIT DOIN' WORK
• Freshman F Bol Dengdit recorded his third double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds in Thursday's win against Santa Clara. He was the Feb. 5 WCC Freshman of the Week after averaging 11.0 points and 9.0 rebounds in a pair of Portland wins.
• After playing limited minutes during non-league play, Dengdit is averaging 9.2 points and a team-high 6.7 rebounds per game in WCC action. He is second among WCC freshmen in rebounds during league play.
• He recorded his first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds at Pacific on Feb. 1 and has reached double figures seven of the last eight games, including a season-high 15 points at San Diego.

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 14-of-the-last-16 games averaging 11.4 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.

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.

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 (7.3), 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 eight of the last 12 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). He missed the last two games due to a hip injury and is day-to-day.

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 LMU
• The Lions (12-17, 5-10 WCC) beat San Diego 96-62 on Saturday.
• LMU has dealt with a number of late-season injuries, but leading scorer Dominick Harris returned with a 20-point effort against USD.
• The Lions have notable non-league wins over UNLV, UTEP and Jackson State.
• Harris leads five Lions averaging double figures at 14.3 per game.
• Head coach Stan Johnson is in his fourth year at the helm.

PORTLAND-LMU SERIES DETAILS
Series Information: LMU leads 60-51
H / A / N: 32-21 / 17-32 / 2-7
Streak: L3
Last 5 /10: 4-1/ 4-6
Last Meeting: LMU 92, Pilots 65 (Jan. 25, 2024 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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