Women's Basketball Invitational First Round
Portland Pilots (12-12) vs. Abilene Christian Wildcats (14-10)

Date: Friday, March 19, 2021
Time: 2 p.m. (PT)
Place: Frankfort, KY
Arena: William Exum Center
Live: Video | Stats

THIS WEEK
• The 2021 Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) postseason tournament features eight teams and will be played March 19-21 at the William Exum Center on the campus of Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Kentucky.
• The Pilots will open the tournament against Abilene Christian on Friday, March 19 at 2 p.m. (PT). The winner will advance to face the winner of Florida International and Northern Arizona on Saturday. The other side of the bracket features Cleveland State vs. Manhattan and Loyola-Chicago vs. Stetson.
• All eight teams are guaranteed to play three games in the bracketed tournament.
• Online video streams and live stats are also available for both games, and links for those can be found at PortlandPilots.com.
 
PILOTS IN THE POSTSEASON
• The Pilots earned a postseason bid for the ninth time, but are 0-7 all-time in postseason play. This is the second WBI appearance for UP (2010).
• Portland has five NCAA Tournament appearances and two WNIT bids as well on the resume.
• Last season the Pilots made a magical run and won the WCC Tournament title to earn an NCAA bid after picked in the preseason to finish last place. Unfortunately, the tournament was not played due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

FOWLER NEARS RECORD MILESTONE
• Sophomore F Alex Fowler is 17 points shy of 1,000 for her career and could become the first Pilot to reach the milestone in just two years (since joining NCAA Division I).
• She is on the fastest pace to achieve the feat in D-I program history. Amy Claboe reached the milestone in her 59th game during the 1995 season. Fowler has played 56 career games entering the WBI Tournament.
• The Townsville, Australia native has erupted lately scoring 20 or more points in 6-of-last-9 games.

MUHLHEIM EYES THREE-POINT RECORD
• Senior G Maddie Muhlheim currently ranks No. 2 all-time on the UP charts with 217 three-pointers made. Deana Lansing owns the record with 223.
• As a sophomore in 2018-19, Muhlheim she set a program single-game record when she hit nine three's against San Diego.

ANDREWS IN RARE COMPANY
• Junior PG Haylee Andrews became the 28th member of the school's 1,000-point club on Feb. 1 against San Diego.
• Andrews also entered the top 10 at UP in career assists, compiling 408 during her 2+ years, good enough for seventh all-time. She is also ninth in career points per game (14.3) and 10th in field goal percentage (.479).
• She twice earned WCC Player of the Week honors this year and picked up an All-WCC First Team award this year after garnering second team recognition a season ago.
• Andrews leads the WCC and ranks 11th in the country in assists per game (6.0). She became just the fourth player ever to lead the conference in both scoring (18.4) and assists (6.2) during league play joining Courtney Vandersloot (Gonzaga, 2011), Rasheeda Clark (Pepperdine, 1999) and Anja Bordt (Saint Mary's, 1989).

ABOUT THE PILOTS
• The Pilots rank ninth in the nation and lead the WCC averaging 17.7 assists per contest; Portland is 22nd nationally and No. 2 the conference in steals per game (10.2).
• During the home win over Saint Mary's on Jan. 4, the Pilots handed out 28 assists, which is a program record against a DI opponent; the previous record of 25 came against Pepperdine in 2014, and in 1983 the Pilots recorded 45 assists vs. Concordia.
• The Pilots also nearly set a program record when they registered 30 steals during a win over Northwest; twice the Pilots have made 31 steals in a game, against Southern Oregon in 1984 and Concordia in 1996.
• The 31 steals are the most for the Pilots since compiling 25 at UC Riverside in 2000, which is the program record for steals against a DI program.
• Andrews was named the WCC player of the Week after averaging 22.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 4.0 assists during road wins at Pepperdine and LMU to close the regular season; Andrews was the second Pilot to earn the award this season, and it's the third time Andrews has been named the WCC's Player of the Week during her career.
• Fowler was named WCC Player of the Week (Dec. 7) after averaging 16.0 points vs. Seattle U and Oregon; it's the fourth career weekly conference honor for Fowler.
• The Pilots, who are led by second-year head coach Michael Meek, are coming off a historical season as Portland made a magical run at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., to win the West Coast Conference Tournament Championship and earn a berth into the NCAA Tournament.
• It was a the first WCC Tourney title for the Pilots since 1994, and Portland would have made their first appearance at March Madness since 1997, had the tourney not been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The game vs. Seattle U on Dec. 6 was No. 300 as a head coach for Meek.
 
A HISTORIC SEASON
• 2019-20 was a season of milestones for the Pilots as first-year head coach Michael Meek led the team to a 21-11 overall record for the program's first 20-win season since 1996-97.
• Portland went 11-7 in the WCC to finish fourth, and this came after the Pilots were selected 10th in the preseason coaches poll; you have to go back to 1996-97 to find a season with more conference wins for the program.
• The Portland faithful flooded to the Chiles Center last year to support the Pilots as the 1,772 fans that came to the game vs. USF (Feb. 15) was the fifth biggest crowd ever, and the contest with Gonzaga (Feb. 29) featured the sixth largest crowd at 1,709.
• The Pilots swept the regular season series vs. Saint Mary's for the first time since 2009.
• On Jan. 4, the Pilots won 57-48 at BYU, ending a 20-game losing streak to the Cougars; it was the first win for Portland over BYU since the 1998-99 season.
• The wins at USF and SCU (Jan 16-18) marked the first WCC weekend road sweep for the Pilots since 2009-10 (also at USF & SCU).
• The Pilots saved perhaps their best performance for Las Vegas when they stormed through the WCC Tournament to claim the title for the first time since 1994.
• The tourney featured wins over three teams that swept the Pilots during the regular season: Pacific (Quarterfinals), No. 11 Gonzaga (Semifinals), San Diego (Finals).
• The win over the No. 11 Zags was the Pilots first win in the series since defeating Gonzaga in 2009 in Spokane, a stretch of 23 straight Bulldog wins.
• By winning the WCC, the Pilots claimed their first berth to the NCAA Tournament since 1997.
• Alex Fowler recorded one of the best individual seasons in program history; the forward led the conference in scoring with an 18.0 points per game mark, she was named the WCC's Newcomer of the Year, was voted to the All-WCC First Team, was tabbed the WCC Tournament MVP, and she joined Andrews on the all-tournament team.