Portland Power

From Hoopedia

The Portland Power was a women's professional basketball team in the American Basketball League (ABL) based in Portland, Oregon. The Power began play in 1996, and disbanded when the the ABL folded at the end of 1998.

1 Season By Season

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Season By Season

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1996-97

The Power's first head coach was Greg Bruce, who had previously been the head women's basketball coach at Portland State. The Power's first roster included:

Lisa Harrison - forward for Tennessee's 1991 national championship team
Michelle Marciniak - guard for Tennessee's 1996 national championship team
Katy Steding - Portland native, 1996 basketball Olympic gold medalist, and forward for Stanford's 1990 national championship team
Coquese Washington - guard for Notre Dame
Natalie Williams - center for UCLA's basketball team and volleyball national championship teams in 1990 and 1991

The Power got off to a miserable start, going 5-17 under Bruce, who resigned on New Year's Day 1997 and was replaced by former Purdue coach Lin Dunn. Under Dunn, the Power managed to go 9-9 the rest of the first season, and finished last in the Western Conference.

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1997-98

In their second season, the Power showed much improvement. The team acquired Sylvia Crawley from North Carolina's 1994 national championship team and Delisha Milton from Florida among other players, and won the Western Conference. Coach Dunn was named ABL Coach of the Year, and Williams was named the league's MVP. In the playoffs, the team met the conference runner-up, the Long Beach StingRays, and lost 2 games to 0.

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1998-99

For their third season, the Power acquired Steding's former Stanford teammate, point guard Sonja Henning. Though they got off to to a slow start, the Power was leading the Western Conference after completing a five-game win streak when the ABL abruptly folded due to financial difficulties on December 22, 1998.

At the time of their demise, the Power's starting lineup was: