Game Report: Gonzaga 76, Portland 71

Trista Hull, left, and a Gonzaga defender (Esther Little, I think).

The other night a friend of mine had a spare ticket to a basketball game between the women of the University of Portland and the women of Gonzaga University. I hadn't seen my friend in years, and so I happily agreed to meet him at the game. It seemed like a good opportunity to get caught up. I follow him on the internet, and vice versa, but our last in-person time had been before Covid.

The game was taking place at the UP's Chiles Center, named after Mr. Fred Meyer's stepson. I had only been in the place once or twice before. I checked the map and was surprised to see that the drive was going to take me about 23 minutes. I had pictured it being a little closer, but then I remembered, there's a long way between my neck of the woods and that part of north Portland. The school is about halfway between my home and Kelley Point, where the east side ends.

I drove there in the New Year gloom, but the rain had let up, and as I cruised along I saw some parts of north Portland that I hadn't visited in a long while. It seemed cleaned up from the old days. Hipster food joints here and there. But it was dark; I really couldn't make out much. These old-man eyes have trouble with those nasty blinding headlights, right at eye level when you're driving a normal car.

As I pulled into a big parking lot with hundreds of open spaces, all free, it reminded how simple life used to be in Portland. The scale of the place felt just right. There were big playing fields and a bubble building (for tennis, I guessed) and a rec center and the basketball arena, but despite all the facilities, it seemed simple and mellow.

I got there a little early, and so I walked around a little and chatted with a security guard who was keeping an eye on the parked Gonzaga team bus. The fresh air felt good. He said they're building a new track facility just up the road. 

Once I was in the arena, the evening lived up to all expectations in the catching-up department with my buddy. But the pleasant surprise was how fine the scene was in all other respects. The stands weren't full, but they weren't empty, either. The crowd was smart and respectful, and there were a lot of young women and girls in the audience. There was music playing and an announcer, but it wasn't the blaring and screaming you get at the big-money venues. The action on the court was the focus; just about everybody seemed to value it above all else. At one point free T-shirts were thrown into the crowd, but by hand, rather than being shot out of cannons.

We were treated to a high-quality game. Portland, the Pilots, fell way behind in the first half but rallied furiously to tie the game up with only a couple of minutes left in the fourth quarter. Then Gonzaga, the Bulldogs, mounted one last push to win. The Zag bench was clearly superior to Portland's, at least on this evening. And the women from Spokane shot way better three-pointers. 

The top scorer for Portland was Trista Hull, a senior transfer from Boise State, who had 18 points to go with five rebounds and a couple of blocked shots. Three other Pilots were "in double figures," as they say. But it wasn't quite enough.

It was Portland's second straight home loss, and both of those were conference games, which is not good. But before that, they had run off 14 straight wins. Their future seems up in the air, but their fans looked like a loyal bunch, and still fairly optimistic.

The entertainment value was high indeed, and as I told my friend when we split up in the parking lot afterward, I'm ready to go back for another game. It beats the grotesque show that the Trail Blazers put on, by a country mile, and besides that, it's hassle-free and an amazingly cheap night out. It felt a little like the junior hockey games or Hops baseball, only better. I don't know, maybe it's because the players are women and I'm a dad of two daughters of roughly the same age. 

So here's a recommendation if you're even a casual basketball fan and you're in or around Portland: Check out UP women's basketball. Counting tonight, they've got seven home games to play between now and Senior Night, February 22. I'm sure they'd be glad to have you, and if you're like me you'll probably have a real nice time.

UPDATE, 2:15 p.m.: A sports photographer named Scott Larson has some good shots of the game posted on Threads. Here are a couple:

Hull, Maud Huijbens.

Emme Shearer guarded by Yvonne Ejim.