Women's Basketball WCC Columnist Jeff Faraudo

Portland Wins 2023 UCU WCC Basketball Tournament

LAS VEGAS — The ball just sat there on the left side of the rim, seemingly forever. Ten feet below, Alex Fowler sat on the floor, waiting to see if her shot would fall. Finally, it rolled in and Fowler joyously pumped her firsts.

“I was watching . . . I was really hoping it would go in,” Fowler said. “It was such a surreal feeling . . . an insane feeing.”

She converted the ensuing free throw with 37.8 seconds left, giving the Pilots a 61-59 lead they parlayed into a 64-60 victory over Gonzaga in the championship game of the University Credit Union West Coast Conference Tournament at Orleans Arena on Tuesday afternoon.

For coach Michael Meek, the wait was agonizing. “I saw it,” he said, “and looked away for 2-3 seconds and I came back and it was still sitting there.”

For the Pilots, an even longer wait is over. They are headed to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1997. Portland won the 2020 WCC title, beating the Zags in the semifinals, but their postseason dreams were quashed when the pandemic caused the NCAA tourney to be canceled.

“I’m still in shock that we won this,” said Fowler, named tournament MVP after scoring all 15 of her points in the second half and grabbing 11 rebounds. “It brought back some memories from my freshman season. I’m over the moon right now.”

Fowler was a freshman on the 2020 Portland team that was picked 10th in the preseason coaches poll, then shocked top seed Gonzaga in the semifinals and beat San Diego for the title. She was MVP that year as well.

Just as the Pilots (23-8) rallied from a 20-point first half hole against the Zags (28-4) three years ago, they trailed 33-22 at halftime in this one.

Haylee Andrews, whose late game heroics sparked the final two wins in 2020, missed the second half of this season after suffering a knee injury for the second straight year. But she was in the locker room at halftime, making sure her teammates knew there was a lot of basketball still to play.

“For us our seniors, we told the younger girls it’s an 11-point game. It’s nothing. Forget about the first half. We can do it.”

The Pilots switched from their half-court trap to full-court pressure in the second half and forced Gonzaga into nine third-quarter turnovers, which they translated into 19 of their 26 points in the period.

“Portland was aggressive and very physical throughout the entire game,” Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said. “Turnovers were the reason for the outcome. I wish we would have handled the pressure a little better than we did.”

The tactic provided just the outcome Meek hoped it would. “I’m a really big believer that the most aggressive teams are going win,” he said.

Fowler’s three-point play with 37.8 seconds left returned the lead to Portland after regular-season champion Gonzaga had scored nine straight points for a 59-58 lead.

The Pilots then pushed their lead to four points when McKelle Meek made two free throws with 25.4 seconds left. Calli Stokes made one of two free throws for Gonzaga with 14.7 seconds left but Emma Shearer and Fowler forced a tie-up on a double-team against Brynna Maxwell with 6.2 seconds left and Portland got possession. Shearer’s free throw with 1.7 second left iced the win.

McKelle Meek scored 12 points and had four assists for the Pilots and Shearer posted nine points and three steals.

Yvonne Ejim had 21 points and 14 rebounds before fouling out at the finish, Kaylynn Truong scored 18 points and Eliza Hollingsworth had 11 points and eight rebounds.

Meek, whose teams have won WCC tourney crowns in two of his first four seasons, said the time since 2020 has shown him just how tough it is. The Pilots were armed Monday with motivation knowing they had to win to get into the NCAA Tournament, but Meek wasn’t sure that was an advantage.

“If anything, it put more pressure on us. They knew they were already in the tournament,” he said, referring to the Zags. “I was concerned our kids would think about that too much. Once the competitiveness came out we turned into a different team.”

BEATING THE HOME TEAM: Portland guard Maisie Burnham, a sophomore transfer from Eastern Washington, grew up in Spangle, Washington, about 18 miles south of Spokane. So facing the Zags was a special opportunity and she attacked the game with appropriate aggressiveness, totaling a team-high 19 points and four of Portland’s 12 steals.

“Growing up in Spokane, I have always been around that setting,” she said. “I know they’re a great basketball school. That’s what made me want to beat them so badly.”

TOUGH LOSS TO SWALLOW: The Zags will earn an at-large bid to the NCAAs but they were hoping to win their 11th WCC tourney crown, their third in a row.

Asked what she said to her players afterward, Fortier admitted, “I’m not good at this day. I never want to be good at this speech. I want to cry. But you have a couple choices and we always want to choose the one that’s learn and get better. We want to see if we can have some fun in March. One of our goals was to win this game, but we have other goals, too.”

Ejim said she is grateful the team has more games to play. “It definitely gives us something to focus on other than just the loss,” she said. “I feel like it gives us a little bit of fire. We’re feeling this feeling right now, but we don’t want it to last and we don’t want to feel it again.”

ROUGH DAY FOR THE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Gonzaga senior point guard Kaylynne Truong had 18 points, including four 3-pointers, five assists and three steals. But the WCC’s regular-season Player of the Year also had seven of the Zags’ 24 turnovers, then injured her shoulder in the final minute. Fortier said it did not appear to be serious.

“She played a lot of minutes. I think she was a little tired,” said Fortier, who took Truong out of the game briefly to help settle her down but had her on the floor for 36 1/2 minutes. “I said, `Our team looks to you to be steady. That’s the best thing you’ve done all year — be steady.' She doesn’t get rattled very easily. We had a minute when we all were a little shook.”

PILOTS IN THE POSTSEASON: This will be Portland’s fifth trip to the NCAA Tournament, having previously made it in 1997, ’96, ’95 and ’94. The Pilots qualified by winning the 2020 WCC bid before the NCAAs were canceled. “I can’t wait to see who we end up playing against,” Fowler said, looking ahead to NCAA Selection Sunday. “I think this team has jumped a long way in four years.”

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Besides MVP Fowler and teammate Burnham, Gonzaga’s Ejim and Kaylynne Truong, and BYU’s Lauren Gustin were named to the five-player all-tournament team. Fowler’s two-game numbers in the WCC tourney included 44 points, 17 rebounds, seven steals and six assists.