SAN BRUNO, Calif. – ESPN has selected the Gonzaga-Portland women’s basketball game at the Chiles Center in Portland on Saturday, February 28 and will showcase the regular season finale on ESPNU at 5:00 p.m. PT.  
 
The game features a matchup of last season’s West Coast Conference co-regular season champions, as both teams finished 17-3 in conference play. Each of the two regular season matchups last season were decided by five points or less. The Zags defeated the Pilots, 76-71, in the first meeting in Portland in early January. Later in the month, Gonzaga edged Portland, 66-65, on a bucket from Yvonne Ejim with nine seconds left as the Gonzaga star finished the night with a career-high 35 points and 13 rebounds.
 
Gonzaga and Portland both advanced to the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) last season, as a record six West Coast Conference programs earned postseason selections last year.
 
Portland finished the year with a program record 31 wins. The Pilots won their first 14 games, including a perfect 11-0 mark in nonconference play. Overall, 21 of Portland’s 31 wins came by double digits. Portland was one of just 27 teams in NCAA Division I last season to win at least 20 games over Division I opponents by 10 or more points. Portland won at least a share of the West Coast Conference regular season title for the fourth time in program history.  
 
Gonzaga posted 24 wins overall and earned at least a share of the West Coast Conference regular season title for the third consecutive season and 20th time in program history. Head coach Lisa Fortier is tied for second in West Coast Conference history in career conference victories with former Portland head coach Jim Sollars at 171. She is 16 wins shy of the conference record, held by former Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s head coach Kelly Graves (187). Sophomore Allie Turner captured West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year honors last season and was an Honorable Mention All-American by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. She was one of the leading three-point shooters in the nation last season, finishing with 105 three-point field goals.    
 
The February 28 contest in Portland will be the second of two meetings between the Pilots and Zags this season. The two teams will meet at the McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane on Saturday, January 10.
 
Following the February 28 contest, both programs will compete in the Credit Union 1 West Coast Conference Basketball Championship presented by Air Force Reserve at Orleans Arena in Last Vegas the first week of March.
 
This marks the second time in three years the regular season finale between Gonzaga and Portland will be televised by ESPN. The Feb. 28, 2024 contest in Spokane also aired on ESPNU.
 
Last season, the Gonzaga-Oregon State game in Spokane, which the Beavers won 71-67 in overtime, was televised on ESPN2.