Tully Bevilaqua Faces Portland Fire Again in Fever Return — Portland Fire Vs Fever
Tully Bevilaqua returns to the Portland Fire story on Wednesday night, when the Indiana Fever host the re-formed franchise at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in portland fire vs fever. The matchup puts the 53-year-old assistant back in front of the team she helped launch 24 years ago.
Bevilaqua’s Portland link
Bevilaqua was one of the Fire’s founding players in 2000, then watched the team fold in 2002 after three seasons. She has spent six years with the Fever from 2005 to 2010 and now serves as an assistant, advance scout and video coordinator.
Her reaction to Portland’s return carried the weight of that run. “The team was on a momentum (swing), uphill in terms of crowd attendances, records, that kind of thing. So, it was a real surprise, real disappointment, when we folded. So, to have it come back, it’s like we’re getting to finish that story or not finish it, restarting it,” she said Tuesday at Fever practice.
Fire memories and the Sparks upset
The old Portland team went 37-59 and did not make the playoffs, but it still had one sharp peak: an 80-77 road upset of the Los Angeles Sparks in 2000. Bevilaqua finished that game with 7 points, three rebounds and two assists, and the Sparks were on a 12-game winning streak when Portland beat them.
She also had 9 points, three rebounds and one assist in the first Indiana-Portland game, and Fever coach Stephanie White took part in that matchup. Bevilaqua said of the Sparks win, “No one expected us to win. … We were playing them in L.A., missing players. I think we’d gone down to the beach all morning to work on our tans before the game,” and added, “And we came out, and we won. And if you look back at our celebration after that game, it was like we’d just won the championship. But that’s how we played every game, and that’s how we felt (with) every win that we had.”
Portland back in the league
The Fire are back as one of two WNBA expansion teams this season, alongside the Toronto Tempo. Bevilaqua said the new group carries a familiar edge, calling them a team with “a huge following” and noting, “They’ve got the same integrity, fight.”
That makes Wednesday’s game more than a reunion for one assistant. It also puts a former Fire founding player on the sideline when the franchise she helped build takes the floor again, this time against the team she later joined for six seasons and the league she has stayed in for 14 WNBA seasons overall.
