Pacific and Portland Look to Pick Up Their First Conference Victories
By Josh Horton
Pacific Tigers (9-3, 0-1) at Portland Pilots (8-6, 0-2)
Date: Thursday, January 2nd, 2014
Location: Chiles Center, Portland, OR.
Time: 7:00 p.m. PST
TV: Root Sports
Radio: Portland: 910 AM or http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/up.portal?mode=link&eventId=133379&broadcastType=audio
Pacific: http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/uop.portal
LiveStats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=33924&a=1
Last Season: DNP
PROJECTED STARTERS
Portland
Alec Wintering, 8.1 PPG, 4.2 APG
Bryce Pressley, 7.4 PPG
Kevin Bailey, 17.7 PPG
Ryan Nicholas, 12.8 PPG, 9.5 RPG
Thomas van der Mars, 13.0 PPG, 6.4 RPG
Pacific
Andrew Bock, 12.6 PPG
Sama Taku, 11.8 PPG
Trevin Harris, 4.8 PPG
Tony Gill, 11.1 PPG
Khalil Kelly, 8.4 PPG
Both the Pacific Tigers and Portland Pilots will be looking to get off the schneid after opening conference play with winless records.
The Pilots fell to San Francisco in overtime after Chris Adams tied the ballgame at the end of regulation by nailing a three-pointer at the buzzer. Portland dropped a game to Santa Clara at home as well.
Pacific played its lone conference game against Saint Mary’s, where the Gaels won by a score of 88-80.
Keys to the Game
Portland
The Backcourt: The Pilots are at their best when the backcourt is making shots and putting pressure on the defense to spread out instead of packing the lane with bodies to counteract the likes of Thomas van der Mars and Ryan Nicholas.
In the Pilots two losses to open non-conference, Portland guards Alec Wintering and Bryce Pressley have combined to score only 18 points, which averages out to 4.5 PPG per person. These two need to do a much better job of scoring to take some pressure off Nicholas and Van der Mars inside.
Pacific
TJ Wallace: This freshman reserve guard has started to come into his own the last few games. Of course he will make a few mistakes, he is a freshman after all. However, Wallace is the closest thing the Tigers have to instant offense of their squad.
If Wallace has a 10+ point game today, it would immensely help the Tigers.
Prediction
Pacific, despite some recent struggles, has a great deal of seniors that have plenty of experience playing on the road. Although Portland badly needs a victory, I predict that Pacific will edge the Pilots by a close margin. Pacific 77, Portland 72.