Wednesday night features a matchup between West Coast Conference foes: The Portland Pilots and the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Gonzaga, currently ranked 21st in the country, won\u2019t have much trouble skating through the year to a conference championship, but this matchup isn\u2019t like most on their schedule. [ad-4468020]<\/p>\n
Portland (13-10, 5-6 WCC) at No. 21 Gonzaga (20-3, 10-1 WCC)<\/strong> ATS Matchup Insight<\/a> | CP Insider Gambling Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The Pilots are the only team in the conference to defeat the Bulldogs this year, giving Gonzaga an extra hop in its step as it prepares for tipoff.<\/p>\n The Portland Pilots may not garner much national attention, but their win over then-22nd Gonzaga on Jan. 9 sure got the Bulldogs\u2019 attention.<\/p>\n That win ended Gonzaga\u2019s 20-game winning streak, and while the team was surely pumped up to face an opponent who got their attention, they must be ready for a national powerhouse that now has even more motivation.<\/p>\n On the year, Portland is scoring a respectable 78 points per game. That\u2019s good enough for 42nd in the nation, and it\u2019s just 1.3 fewer points than what Gonzaga averages. The problem is efficiency. Gonzaga is third in field-goal percentage, shooting 50.4 percent on the year, while the Pilots are just 101st at 45.8. The last time the Bulldogs faced Portland, they allowed the Pilots to shoot 51.9 percent from the field. Portland also knocked down 8 of its 14 three-point attempts, which means Gonzaga must be focused on the defensive end this time around.<\/p>\n The other problem the last time the Bulldogs faced Portland was the absence of Gary Bell, Jr. The junior guard is averaging 12.5 points per contest\u2014the third-highest mark on the roster\u2014but more importantly, he shoots 46.8 percent from deep\u2014the team\u2019s second-highest mark (by 0.001 percent).<\/p>\n With Bell back in the rotation, don\u2019t expect the Bulldogs to lay a duck like last time. In the first meeting between these two, Gonzaga scored just 73 points, being outscored by nine when it was all said and done.<\/p>\n Even if the Pilots come out hot, the Bulldogs are in much better shape with Bell on the floor. The team shot just 4-of-15 (26.7 percent) from downtown in the first meeting, and that shouldn\u2019t happen a second time.<\/p>\n Combine the return of Bell with home-court advantage, and you\u2019ve got a very motivated team looking to make a very clear statement.<\/p>\n Prediction: Portland 68 \u2013 Gonzaga 85<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Portland vs Gonzaga CBB Picks Wednesday night features a matchup between West Coast Conference foes: The Portland Pilots and the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Gonzaga, currently ranked 21st in the country, won\u2019t have much trouble skating through the year to a conference championship, but this matchup isn\u2019t like most on their schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":71098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1141],"tags":[244,7715,7714,61062,23779,8911,61063,61061,23785],"class_list":["post-72260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-bulldogs","tag-gonzaga","tag-gonzaga-bulldogs","tag-pilots","tag-pilots-vs-bulldogs","tag-portland","tag-portland-pilots","tag-portland-pilots-vs-gonzaga-bulldogs","tag-portland-vs-gonzaga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72262,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72260\/revisions\/72262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWednesday, Feb. 5 11:00 p.m. ET at McCarthey Athletic Center<\/strong>
\nSpread: Gonzaga -15<\/strong>
\n [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/strong><\/p>\nPortland<\/h3>\n
\n[ad-6571516]
\nPortland is going up against a Gonzaga defense that is allowing just 65.9 points per contest on the year, and it\u2019s going to need solid shooting throughout \u2013 or solid defense to make up for a subpar field-goal percentage.<\/p>\nGonzaga<\/h3>\n