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Provo • Once a year, the West Coast Conference deals BYU's basketball team a preparation headache by scheduling a Monday game after a Saturday game.
It is problematic because BYU doesn't practice on Sundays for religious reasons, and doesn't get any time to game plan for the Monday opponent until that morning's shootaround.
Perhaps more troubling for coach Dave Rose's team on Monday when it returns to the Marriott Center (7 p.m., BYUtv) to try to erase the bitterness of Saturday's 87-80 loss to No. 8 Gonzaga is the fact that the next visiting team is darn good as well. The resurgent Portland Pilots are 10-3 and coming off a 61-58 win over San Diego.
Sophomore guard Alex Wintering nailed a three-pointer with less than a second remaining for the win after the Pilots trailed by six late in regulation.
The quick turnaround also doesn't give BYU guard Tyler Haws much rest, something he needs while playing on a sprained ankle. Haws was clearly tired in the second half against the Zags, and he was 1 of 6 from the field in the final 20 minutes after going 3 of 6 in the first half.
Guard Chase Fischer also struggled after having not practiced much since taking a hard hit in Tuesday's 77-71 overtime win over UMass. Fischer was 2 of 7, including 1 of 6 from three-point range, in 19 minutes.
BYU's bigs got in early foul trouble, and Rose was forced to play a four-guard lineup most of the game against the towering Zags.
"We didn't get off to the best start with our big guys," Rose said. "So we will try to figure out a way to make that happen. We are going to play a big team on Monday. Portland has two or three 7-footers that they will throw at us, so hopefully we can do a little better job against them."
Portland was out rebounded (42-41) on Saturday for just the second time in 13 games and not only has excellent size, but has seemingly figured out how to win close games. The Pilots are 4-1 in games decided by five points or fewer after going 1-6 in such contests last year.
And they won without leading scorer Kevin Bailey, who missed his sixth-straight game with a foot injury.
The inside players Rose referred to are all foreigners: 6-11 Ukrainian forward Volodymyr Gerun, 6-11 center Thomas van der Mars of the Netherlands, 6-11 Canadian Riley Barker and 7-footer Philipp Hartwich of Germany.
Volodymyr and van der Mars are starters and combine to average 21 points and 14.3 rebounds per game, while Barker averages 4.8 points and 5.3 rebounds off the bench and Hartwich is a seldom-used substitute.
Twitter: @drewjay —
Portland at BYU
O Tipoff: • 7 p.m. MST
TV • BYUtv
Radio • 1160 AM/102.7 FM
Records • BYU 0-1, 10-4; Portland 1-0, 10-3
Series History • BYU leads, 10-1
Last Meeting • BYU 89, Portland 72 (Feb. 22, 2014)
About the Pilots • They won their WCC opener 61-58 on Saturday night when sophomore guard Alec Wintering buried a three-pointer with 0.3 seconds left to defeat San Diego. … Senior F Volodymyr Gerun had 13 points and 14 rebounds in the win. … G Kevin Bailey leads them in scoring with a 13.1 average but has missed six-straight games with a foot injury.
About the Cougars • Their bench outscored Gonzaga's bench 40-15 in Saturday's 87-80 loss to the No. 8 Zags at the Marriott Center. … Junior guard Kyle Collinsworth had his second triple-double with 13 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists and owns two of the three triple-doubles in the country this season. … G Anson Winder scored 42 points off the bench in two games last week.