Portland Pilots women’s basketball team will face the Washington State Cougars in the third round of the 2026 Credit Union 1 West Coast Conference (WCC) Women’s Basketball Championships. The game is scheduled for Saturday, March 7 at noon at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas and will be broadcast on ESPN+.
The Pilots enter the tournament with a season record of 17-13. In their most recent games, they lost to Pepperdine Waves but secured an overtime win against Gonzaga Bulldogs. Against Pepperdine, Florence Dallow recorded a double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds, becoming only the fourth Pilot to do so this season. Dallow also achieved career highs in rebounds and steals during that game. Tiffany Barbosa scored a personal best of 19 points and made five three-pointers, while Julia Dalan set a program record for blocks by a true freshman with four blocks in nine minutes.
During their overtime victory over Gonzaga, Nicole Anderson led with 20 points—eight coming in overtime—and contributed key three-pointers. Dallow added another 15 points in the fourth quarter, including the game-tying shot at regulation’s end.
Head coach Michael Meek has guided Portland to significant achievements since his arrival. Under Meek, who is now in his seventh season, the Pilots have won WCC Tournament titles in 2020, 2023, and 2024 as well as a regular season title in 2024-25. “In 2020, Meek’s first season, he led the Pilots to their first WCC Tournament championship since 1994 and just their second in program history. Alex Fowler was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player that season.” The team’s all-time record at the tournament stands at 25-30 with four championships.
Statistically this year, Portland leads its conference in blocks per game (5.6), turnovers forced per game (20.7), and steals per game (11.1). Nationally they rank tenth for blocks per game and are among top teams for turnovers forced and steals per contest.
Several players received postseason recognition following regular season play: Dyani Ananiev made All-WCC Second Team; Florence Dallow earned honorable mention; Julia Dalan was named to the freshman team; Nicole Anderson earned WCC All-Academic First Team honors.
Last season saw historic results for Portland as they finished with a program-best record of 31-5 overall and shared the WCC Regular Season Title after going 17-3 in conference play.
Washington State enters Saturday’s matchup with a record of 9-24 overall and finished ninth in conference play after winning two tournament games against Seattle U Redhawks and Pacific Tigers to advance to this round. Eleanora Villa was named to both preseason and postseason All-WCC teams after averaging a team-high of 16.5 points per game this year under head coach Kamie Ethridge.
Tickets for upcoming home events are available through PortlandPilots.com/Tickets or via the Portland Pilots App.
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