2024 Pilot Non-Conference Games

Game Day!
 
In the first game of the season, the Pilots go up against the University of Hawai’i Rainbow Wahine tonight at 6pm…and it will be televised on the CW with Ann Schatz calling the shots.

(Although, as of this morning the game was not listed on the CW’s Comcast lineup, I have been assured the game will be televised).

Coming off last season’s 20-11 (17-3) season the 'Bows return 87% of their scoring from that team and three players who earned All-Big West honors during the team’s conference winning season.

Among the 10 returning letterwinners, the 'Bows return three fifth-year seniors and top scorers, #1 Kelsie Imai, #23 MeiLani McBee and #15 Daejah Phillips.

Taking a page out of UP’s book, among UH’s five newcomers, two are from New Zealand and two are from Australia. One of them, #24 6-4 Ritorya Tamilo, from New Zealand, averaged 13.5 points while shooting 11/14 from the field in the Bows two exhibition wins.

The Rainbow Wahine were voted to finish first in the Big West Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll for the third consecutive season and they were selected at No. 19 in the Collegeinsider.com Preseason Mid Major Top 25 (UP was No. 28).

UP will be without the services of New Zealanders Melika Samia and Flo Dallow for the entire season, but previously injured Trista Hull and Dyani Ananiev expect to play tonight.

I hope nobody gets confused by the headline for the game at portlandpilots.com

We don’t have to go to Hawai’i to see the game.

Pilots win 76-65 and lead Hawai’i by 20 at one point. Emme Shearer was POG with 15pts, 4reb, 2 assists and 3 steals.

Aside from Burnham and Shearer, two Pilots came off the bench and made notable contributions, not to diminish in the least the contributions of other players. Based on last night's performance, both Ananiev and Mogel made a case for being in the starting lineup.

Preseason prognostications suggesting Pilots should be rated lower than Hawaii seem to be misplaced.

Hope Fraley's injury proves not to be serious.

+1 to everything bullwinkle and wrv said.  It sure would've been great to finish the game better, but spending 3.5 quarters absolutely throttling a team ranked #19 in the Mid Major Top 25 is nothing to sneeze at. Congrats to Coach Meek on his 100th win as a Pilot!

Hawaii bounced back today with a 72-50 win over Portland State.

Game Day!

NAIA Corban University, a Christian school from Salem, comes to the Chiles Center for a 6 o'clock tip.

Expecting to see a number of Corban fans rooting for some hometown players.

DoubleDipper wrote:Game Day!

Highlight of the night for many of us during UP's 108-41 victory tonight:

Senior nursing student Anna Eddy seeing her first action in a year due to injury, comes out and pops three 3-pointers in three attempts...and the bench went wild on all three!!

Nah. The highlight of the night was 30 Steals, with every Pilot getting at least one.

Notable were the play of Lainey Spear and Elle Zimmerman in the low post. Each looks capable of extended minutes. Elle Zimmerman's 6 blocks were the most by a Pilot in their debut. Nice.

If Anna Eddy is going to shoot like that she will get minutes and perhaps get her grandfather to a few games.

DoubleDipper wrote:Senior nursing student Anna Eddy seeing her first action in a year due to injury, comes out and pops three 3-pointers in three attempts...and the bench went wild on all three!!

https://x.com/i/status/1856543324183888329

The Pilots expect a tough one in Cheney on Sunday at 2pm against the bigger and taller EWU Eagles.

EWU led WSU by 12 at the half in Pullman before losing by 1 point and then played UW even in the first half before being pummeled by in the second half in Seattle. Last year, EWU finished 29-6 overall and 16-2 in Big Sky play. They won the Big Sky Tournament to earn their first automatic bid for the tournament since 1987.

If EWU's advantage is size, UP's will be experience, but there will be very large and loud crowd tomorrow because it's "Santa Swoop, Toys for Tots & Food Pantry Donations, Teddy Bear Toss, & First Round on Coach Monson" during the EWU WBB and MBB doubleheader...

As I write this, it is snowing in Cheney, and the Pilots are likely having a snowball fight before getting a good night's sleep.

Ladies beat EWU 74-62.  A slow 1st qtr, a strong 2nd qtr, an even 3rd qtr and a dominate 4th qtr (21-10).  Burnham goes home and gets a double double with 22 pts and 11 rbs in 38 minutes.  Pilots only 4-23 from 3P range, but made 28-36 FTs on 30 EWU fouls.  Pilots called for 28 fouls, EWU only had 19 FT tries and made 14.  Pilots force 23 turnovers while making 14.  Rebounds were even.  Crowd was 1,090.

58 total fouls must have made for a very choppy game.

Noteworthy that you can win a game against a decent opponent while shooting 17% from behind the arc. We will need to shoot better in conference.
Maisie Burnham, among others, will be sorely missed by this team next year.
Nice win ladies.

Very impressive to start out the season with wins against the defending Big West regular season champ and the defending Big Sky regular season and tournament champ--with the latter coming on the road in front of a pretty good crowd. This team could be really, really fun.

Second-year head Coach Skylar Young and his 0-3 Seattle U. Redhawks come to the Chiles Center on Tuesday at 6pm, and just like it was a homecoming of sorts for Maisie at EWU, this will be a homecoming for "Coach Sky" who was a UP assistant under Coach Cheryl Sorenson and Coach Mike Meek during his five seasons on The Bluff.

When Coach Meek took over as head coach, he was advised to keep Sky or Alex Fowler would likely transfer, and sure enough, the first question Alex had for Mike was, "are you keeping Coach Sky?"

When Sky got to Seattle he knew had to "clean house" to build a winning program, so this season's team is a work in progress and is made up of mostly freshmen and transfers.

Coming off a 67-57 loss on the road to PSU, Seattle is getting pretty good scoring production from their young guards, #23 from Italy & #15 from Utah, but #34, a 6-3 forward from Jamaica and #2 a 6-1 grad-student from Russia could give the Pilots problems down low.

It should be another Pilots win, but Coach Sky knows the Pilots system and his team should be competitive for a while.

DoubleDipper wrote:Coming off a 67-57 loss on the road to PSU, Seattle is getting pretty good scoring production from their young guards, #23 from Italy & #15 from Utah, but #34, a 6-3 forward from Jamaica and #2 a 6-1 grad-student from Russia could give the Pilots problems down low.

It should be another Pilots win, but Coach Sky knows the Pilots system and his team should be competitive for a while.

From an 8-8 game, Pilots went on a 10-0 run and took a 52-26 halftime lead. So, no, the Redhawks were not competitive in the 1st half. The women must have taken their foot off the gas, basically playing even (26-29) in the 2nd half.

8 of 18 3P shooting, 9 blocks, 12 steals, and 20 SU turnovers fueled the 78-55 win, per the stats.

Dyani Ananiev did not suit up and was wearing a boot. Any word on the extent of her injury and when she might return.

bullwinkle wrote:It's disconcerting to hear the Pilot introductions before the game - 4 grad students and a senior, but you can see the potential for this team as players come into the game.  They all look good, but I wanted to mention a couple specifically.  Rhyan Mogul has got the system figured out.  Her speed and agility remind me of Emme Shearer.  Tiffany Barbosa is another great addition.  Seems like I heard she was a shooter, but she is also a defender.  She is fast and menacing on defense.  The starters all did their jobs exceptionally well and Trista Hull was just incredible.

Agree. Let the mourning begin for our "4 grad students and a senior." These really are the "halcyon days" for wbb on the bluff, unless,  of course, our resident magician has more rabbits in that hat. I wouldn't say Maisie Burnham and Emme Shearer are irreplaceable,  but their loss will have
significant impact. Mckelle Meek will likewise be missed.

Mogel can handle point guard duties as she has shown this year.

Trista Hull's  play last night was dominant on both ends. 7 blocks speaks for itself. Offensively, her dexterous skills around the basket were heartening. Beating Seattle's post down the floor on multiple occasions reflected her hustle. And, who knew she had a mid-range jumper.

On the women's side of things, the transfer portal has so far worked in the Pilots favor. Kiana Hamilton, Kennedy Dickie and now Trista Hull have made this team better.

Saturday's test will be telling.

wrv wrote:Trista Hull's  play last night was dominant on both ends. 7 blocks speaks for itself. Offensively, her dexterous skills around the basket were heartening. Beating Seattle's post down the floor on multiple occasions reflected her hustle. And, who knew she had a mid-range jumper.

Player of the match, in my estimation!

https://youtu.be/UeXVbCz8Jh8?si=_7QxJBhcUjJX6hCq

A few comments and highlights from our Player of the, ah,, Game/match.