The first women’s basketball game played at Matthew Knight Arena didn’t exactly begin as planned.
Before the opening tip of Oregon’s 81-72 victory over Oregon State Sunday afternoon, the Ducks were assessed an “administrative technical foul” that left Duck head coach Paul Westhead baffled.
“I still don’t understand it, but something about some red light was in the wrong spot, I don’t know,” Westhead said. “I still don’t know what red light they’re talking about.”
The official explanation was that an administrative technical foul was charged to the arena and assessed to the home team because a software glitch caused the light on the shot clock and the light on the backboard to be reversed, so the lights didn’t function properly. While that’s not a technical in the men’s game, it is in women’s basketball.
After that, it got worse for the Knight Arena operations crew. Moments after Oregon State shot its two technical free throws during the first possession of the game, play was halted when the shot clock didn’t start.
But, fortunately for Oregon and the Pacific-10 Conference-record 12,320 fans in attendance, those were the only two mishaps in what was a memorable day for the Oregon players and coaches.
“This was like a godsend to me,” Westhead said. “You walk out there and see all these people cheering the Oregon fight song. It just puts thrills up and down you. It’s incredible. And if I’m feeling it, they have to be feeling it.”
That energy was apparent from even before the opening tip, during player introductions. The lights were turned off, and the crowd roared as highlights were played on the video boards.
“I was not expecting it like this,” shooting guard Kristi Fallin said. “When we travel and go other places all these schools have (video board highlights played pre-game) and when it finally happened it was like, ‘Oh my gosh it’s finally here.’ It was fun to have everyone so excited.”
That excitement didn’t waver throughout the game. The media timeouts were frequently filled with crowd-pleasing attractions, like the “Kiss Cam” and humorous movie clips on the video board, to go along with plenty of free T-shirts.
At one point in the second half, the near-capacity crowd even started an inspired rendition of “the wave.”
“You kind of had to pinch yourself,” Fallin said. “I never thought in a million years I’d play in front of like 12,000 people. It was just exciting to know we have that much support.”
Oregon guard Nia Jackson, who scored a game-high 24 points, echoed those sentiments.
“It’s just a great opportunity,” she said. “It was amazing to see. It gets really loud in there.”
The historic nature of the game wasn’t lost on the visitors from Oregon State either. While the Beavers have struggled mightily this year, head coach Scott Rueck was able to appreciate the moment.
“It was awesome,” Rueck said of the atmosphere. “The neat thing about today, I thought today was about obviously them kicking off this building, which is a really nice place, but the atmosphere today was just a blast to be a part of. Basketball in this state, women’s basketball in this state, is as big as it is anywhere and I thought today celebrated that.”
But now, with the debut past, Oregon is left to wonder how they’ll possibly replicate this type of atmosphere and environment. There’s no surefire way to ensure 10,000 fans will pack the stadium for every game, but Westhead thinks his squad put forth the best advertisement possible to keep the fans coming back.
“I know if we lost we wouldn’t get them back,” Westhead said. “That’s why this game was so important, to be honest. We have now set a standard, and if fans liked it then they’ll come back. If you don’t get them here in the first place, then how are you going to get them back? I think it’s up to us and to our fans to help each other.”
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