USDvsPORgame29

GAME #29: The Toreros close out their regular-season schedule on Saturday against Portland. Tip-off is slated for 6:05 p.m. at the Jenny Craig Pavilion. There will be a pregame tribute for Torero seniors Duda Sanadze and Jito Kok.

SERIES RECORD: This is the 78th meeting between USD and Portland with the Toreros owning a 48-29 series edge... USD downed the Pilots back on Jan. 14th in Portland, 82-71... Duda Sanadze scored a career-high 29 points... Last season, USD won on Feb. 28th, 2015 by the score of 78-66... Cameron Neubauer & Vasa Pusica each chipped in 10 points in the win at the JCP... Portland won the first meeting in Portland on Dec. 27th, 2014 by the score of 61-58... UP scored the game's final nine points including a three-pointer by guard Alec Wintering with less than a second to go.

RADIO/TV/VIDEO STREAM: All USD home and away games will be broadcast live on ESPN 1700AM with Jack Cronin (2nd season); his pre-game show airs 10 minutes prior to tip-off. The contest will be broadcast by Time Warner Cable SportsNet (Chris McGee & Dave Miller) and will also air on CSN Bay Area, ROOT Northwest, ROOT Rocky Mountain, and TheW.tv (out-of-market).

WCC STANDINGS (thru Feb. 25th): Saint Mary's (14-3 WCC, 23-4), Gonzaga (14-3, 22-7), BYU (13-4, 22-8), Pepperdine (10-7, 17-11), San Francisco (8-9, 15-13), Portland (6-11, 12-18), Santa Clara (6-11, 10-19), Pacific (6-11, 8-19), LMU (5-12, 12-16), San Diego (3-14, 8-20).

WCC COACHES PRESEASON POLL:f The Toreros were picked 9th in the 2015-16 WCC Preseason Men's Basketball Coaches Poll... Team (First Place Vote) - 1. Gonzaga (9), 81 points; 2. BYU (2), 73 points; 3. Pepperdine, 62 points; 4. Saint Mary's, 58 points; 5. Portland, 43 points; 6. Santa Clara, 37points; 7. Pacific, 32 points; 7. San Francisco, 32 points; 9. San Diego, 17 points; 10. Loyola Marymount, 15 points.

COACH SMITH (1ST YEAR): Coach Lamont Smith (San Diego, 1998) is in his first head coaching position and comes from New Mexico where he was the Associate Head Coach... Prior to that he spent time at Washington, Arizona State, Santa Clara, Saint Mary's College and Saint Louis University... Smith, 40, returns to USD where he was a member of the men's basketball team from 1994-99... He started all 27 games his senior year in 1998-99 for the 18-9 Toreros... He was named the Toreros' Defensive Player of the Year in 1997 and 1999 and served as the team captain from 1997-99... Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the University of San Diego in 1998... Lamont and his wife Kimberly have two daughters -- Payton and Olivia.

GONZAGA POWERS PAST TOREROS: Led by Domantas Sabonis' 17 points and 17 rebounds, Gonzaga powered past the USD Toreros 82-60 before 4,076 fans at the JCP. USD guard Olin Carter III paced four Toreros in double figures with 13 points. In the first half the Toreros played the Zags to a 32-24 halftime score. Down 8 points at the break, USD's Jito Kok and Vasa Pusica each had 7 points, with Kok adding 4 blocks. USD (8-20, 3-14) limited Bulldog forward Kyle Wiltjer to 4 points on just 2-3 shooting. It was all Gonzaga (22-7, 14-3 WCC) in the second half as they outscored the Toreros 50-36. Wiltjer rebounded with 12 second half points to finish with 16 on the night. Silas Melson added 12 second half points to finish with 18 points off the bench. Over the final 20 minutes the Zags shot 56.7% from the field (17-30), and for the game out-rebounded USD 45-28. USD's three other players in double digits were Jito Kok (11 points, 8 rebounds, 5 blocks), Duda Sanadze (11 points) and Vasa Pusica (11 points). The Toreros were a solid 13-16 from the free throw line, and converted 9-of-29 three-pointers.*

TORERO TIDBITS:
*This season USD is 5-7 in home games and will be looking to break a 3-game home skid when it lines up against Portland on Saturday... Sophomore guard Vasa Pusica leads the Toreros in scoring at the JCP with his 11.4 points per game average... He is followed by Duda Sanadze (9.9 ppg) and Jito Kok (9.6 ppg, 6.2 rpg).

* Senior center Jito Kok ranks 1st in the WCC (#15 in nation thru games of Feb. 25) in blocked shots at 2.60 per game (73 in 28 contests)... He owns all three USD records for blocked shots - single game: 9 vs. UC Davis, 12-15-15; single season: 75 in 2014-15; career: 266 and counting... He is now 2nd all-time among WCC players, trailing only #1 Hondre Brewer of USF, 279... With a minimum of 2 games left in the season, Kok needs 14 more blocks to set a new all-time WCC record... He needs just 3 more blocks to break his own record of 75 for blocks in a season... He ranks 6th among active career Division I blocked shot leaders (266).

* With 11 points against Gonzaga, senior Duda Sanadze leads the team with 17 games in double digits... He scored a career high 29 points at Portland on January 14th, and has reached 20 or more in five contests... Earlier this season he was named to the GCI Great Alaska Shootout All-Tournament team... In 89 career games he has now scored 933 points (10.5 ppg average).

* Against Pacific on Feb. 4th, sophomore guard Vasa Pusica matched his career-high of 19 points he set earlier this season against San Francisco... Against Pacific he converted all eight field goal attempts including a perfect 3-3 from beyond the arc... This season he has reached double-digit scoring eight times, including 17-point efforts against CSUN & LMU.

* Sophomore guard Marcus Harris made it back into the line-up at LMU on Jan. 23rd after missing four games due to an eye injury suffered late in the USF game on January 7th... He scored a career-high 23 points to lead the Toreros past the LMU Lions 77-69 at the JCP on January 30th... He made 7-11 shots from the field, 4-8 threes and 5-7 free throws.

* In the home win over LMU the Toreros buried 10-of-20 three-pointers... Besides Harris' 4-8 shooting, freshman guard Olin Carter III was 2-2; senior forward Duda Sanadze was 2-4, junior forward Brett Bailey was 1-2 and sophomore guard Vasa Pusica was 1-4... This marked the third time USD made 10 or more threes leading to a win - SDSU (10-27), CSUN (15-35)... The CSUN numbers are both single game records for makes and attempts.

* The WCC announced on January 22nd the adjusted WCC Men's Basketball Championship bracket. It has been revised to a nine-team format after the WCC membership reconfigured its men's basketball tournament due to the University of the Pacific's withdrawal. The #8 and #9 seeds will play on Friday, March 4th in a 6:00 p.m. contest (BYUtv, TheW.tv) with the winner advancing to play the #1 seed on Saturday, March 5th, in the 7:00 p.m. contest (ESPN2/WatchESPN).

* USD knocked off San Diego State in the annual City Championship game played outdoors at Petco Park on December 6th by the score of 53-48... Senior Duda Sanadze turned in an inspiring peformance with 15 points (5-10 in threes), 6 rebounds and a career-best 5 steals... Freshman guard Olin Carter III helped USD to a 31-13 halftime advantage by making 4-of-5 threes in the first 20 minutes.

* Four recent Toreros are currently playing professionally overseas - Gyno Pomare, '09 (Kanazawa Samuraiz; Kanazawa, Japan), Dennis Kramer, '14 (EWE Baskets; Oldenberg, Germany), Johnny Dee, '15 (Polpharma; Starogard Gdanski, Poland) and Christopher Anderson, '15 (Weissenhorn Youngstars; Weissenhorn, Germany).

SCOUTING THE PORTLAND PILOTS: The Portland Pilots come to town with a 12-18 overall record and 6-11 WCC mark... On Thursday night the Pilots were dealt a 99-81 loss at BYU with Cougar guard CHase Fischer leading the way with 21 points... Portland received a team-high 17 points from Jazz Johnson off the bench... Bryce Pressley (15 points) and Ray Barreno (10 points, 11 rebounds) also reached double figures... For the season three Pilots average in double digit scoring - guard Alec Wintering (18.5 ppg), Pressley (13.9 ppg) and D'Marques Tyson (10.6 ppg)... As a team the Pilots average 78.0 points per game and give up on average, 79.2 ppg... Portland is 3-8 in "true" away games and 3-10 overall on the road... In the first meeting with USD back on January 14th, Portland was paced by Wintering (23 points) and Pressley (20 points)... Head Coach Eric Reveno is in his 10th year (140-176).

A LOOK AHEAD: The Toreros head to Las Vegas for the WCC Basketball Championships. USD will play either LMU or Santa Clara on Friday, March 4th, at 6:00 p.m. at The Orleans Arena. The winner will advance to face the No. 1 seed on Saturday.