Pilots @ Pepperdine 2/10 7:00PM

Portland (17-7, 4-4 WCC) at Pepperdine (10-16, 4-5)
February 10, 2011 • 7:00 PM • Malibu, Calif. (Firestone Fieldhouse - 3,104)
Radio: 800 AM (KPDQ)
Live Audio: PortlandPilots.com
Series: PEP leads 52-40
Last Meeting: UP 57, PEP 42 (1/5/11 at UP)

This Week in Pilots Hoops…

The Portland Pilots (17-7, 4-4 WCC) return to West Coast Conference play with a road trip to Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount this week. Portland will take on the Pepperdine Waves (10-16, 4-5) on Thursday at 7 p.m. The Pilots and Lions (9-15, 1-8 ) will meet on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Game Coverage

Saturday’s game against LMU will be televised live on FSN West with Larry Burnett and Mitch Butler calling the action. All Portland basketball games are aired live on the radio on 800 AM (KPDQ) with a 30-minute pregame show. Bill Johnson and Jason Brough will provide the commentary for all road games.

Portland Briefly...

• The Pilots bounced back from a 67-64 home loss to Gonzaga last Thursday with a 71-55 road win at Seattle on Saturday.
• Junior G Nemanja Mitrovic scored 20 points, while senior G Jared Stohl added 16 in the win over the Redhawks.
• Senior Kramer Knutson made his 113th career start on Saturday to become UP’s all-time leader.
• Senior F Luke Sikma is three rebounds shy of becoming UP’s all-time rebounds leader.
• The Pilots are No. 2 nationally in team 3-point percentage (.428).
• Mitrovic leads the nation in three-point percentage (.483) and Stohl is No. 9 (.460).

• Stohl (74) and Mitrovic (70) have combined to make 144 three-pointers, the highest total of any teammate duo in the nation.

• UP is No. 16 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25.
• Stohl is seventh on UP’s career scoring list (1,290 points).

• Sikma ranks 10th nationally in rebounds (10.9) and leads the WCC with 11 double-doubles.

• Portland’s 57 wins over the last three years are the most of any three-year stretch since the Pilots joined Division I for the 1958-59 season.

• Portland is coming off of back-to-back postseason appearances and tied a school record with 21 wins last year. Head coach Eric Reveno welcomes eight newcomers to the roster, including seven true freshmen.

About Pepperdine

• The Waves (10-16, 4-5) split a WCC road trip last week, following a 79-71 loss to Saint Mary’s with a 70-63 overtime win at San Diego
• Junior G Keion Bell, the team’s leading scorer at 18.9 ppg, was recently suspended for the remainder of the season.
• Junior G Lorne Jackson has averaged a team-best 16.6 ppg in WCC games.
• Pepperdine was picked seventh in the WCC Preseason Poll after finishing 7-24 and 3-11 in the WCC last year.
• Head coach Tom Asbury is in his ninth overall year at Pepperdine, returning to the Waves prior to the 2008-09 season for his second head coaching stint with the program.

What: Portland (17-7, 4-4 West Coast Conference) at Pepperdine (10-16, 4-5)

When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Firestone Fieldhouse, Malibu, Calif.

File
Eric Reveno


Radio: KPDQ (800)

Probable starters: Portland -- F Luke Sikma (13.4 ppg, 10.8 rpg, 2.5 apg), C Kramer Knutson (7.1 ppg, 5.3 rpg), G Nemanja Mitrovic (13.2 ppg), G Jared Stohl (14.1 ppg, 1.7 apg), G Tim Douglas (7.8 ppg, 2.4 apg); Pepperdine -- F Mychel Thompson (13.3 ppg, 5.8 rpg), F Taylor Darby (7.8 ppg, 5.2 rpg), C Corbin Moore (3.7 ppg, 3.0 rpg), G Joshua Lowery (4.8 ppg, 2.7 apg), G Lorne Jackson (11.9 ppg, 2.5 apg)

Noteworthy: With six conference games remaining, the Pilots are in fifth place, one game behind Gonzaga and Santa Clara, and two games behind second-place San Francisco. The Pilots are seeking their first conference road win, having gone 0-3 with losses at Gonzaga, USF and Santa Clara. ... The teams that finish fifth through eighth will play in the first round of the March 4-7 WCC Tournament in Las Vegas. The third- and fourth-place teams open tourney play in the quarterfinals on March 5, and the top two teams earn automatic berths into the semifinals on March 6.

A memorial service for Mauro Potestio is scheduled for Saturday at 11 a.m. at St. Philip Neri Church, 2408 S.E. 16th and Division. A celebration of his life will follow in the parish hall.

Mitrovic went 4 for 9 from three-point range in Saturday's 71-55 non-conference win over Seattle University at KeyArena in Seattle and is shooting a NCAA-leading 48.3 percent from beyond the arc. As a team, the Pilots are shooting 42.8 percent from long range and rank second in the nation behind the Big Sky's Northern Arizona (43.5). ... Sikma, who leads the WCC with 11 double-doubles, needs three rebounds to break the school's career record of 910 set by Rick Raivio from 1974-78.

In the first meeting, Sikma had 15 points and nine rebounds, and Stohl added 14 points to lead the Pilots to a 57-42 victory over Pepperdine at the Chiles Center on Jan. 15. ... Thompson scored 25 points on 8-for-18 shooting from the field to pace Pepperdine to a 70-63 overtime victory at San Diego Saturday.

In the San Diego game, the Toreros had a three-point lead with 4.2 seconds to go and Chris Gabriel going to the free-throw line looking to extend the lead. San Diego positioned all of its players behind Garbriel, who missed. Pepperdine got an uncontested rebound and pushed the ball quickly to Thompson, who hit a 40-foot shot to force overtime. Jake Curtis wrote on The San Francisco Chronicle's website: "If San Diego had put one player in rebounding position on the free throw, it's unlikely Pepperdine, with no timeouts left, could have put itself in position for that shot. Even a foul on the rebound would have been better."

Waves coach Tom Asbury announced before Saturday's game that junior guard Keion Bell has been suspended for the remainder of the season for conduct detrimental to the team. Bell, who was averaging a team-high 18.9 points before his suspension, is not expected to return for his senior season.

-- Jim Beseda