UC Irvine Women Discover the Gifts of Gabbe
It was just an exhibition game, but it was quite a show for a moment.
The UC Irvine women’s basketball team was scuffling against NWBL, a collection of former college players, last Sunday. The Anteaters’ lead had been trimmed to 28-27 with four minutes left in the first half.
Then . . .
Wendy Gabbe sank a three-pointer. Gabbe hit a 16-foot baseline jumper. Gabbe from 15 . . . good.
Halftime score: Irvine 39, NWBL 29.
Someone had to step up. But a freshman?
“Did you get an eyeful of that?” Anteater center Chelsea Mackey said. “That was nice.”
Gabbe finished with 13 points, making five of nine shots, in Irvine’s 74-61 victory.
It is something that may be more frequent in coming years. Irvine returns five seniors, including guards Megan Stafford, Shannon Anders and Jeanine Horton, so the 5-foot-9 Gabbe must wait her turn. But there is no doubt that she will have a significant role off the bench this season.
“There is so much talent here, all I want to do is help them win,” Gabbe said.
That hasn’t been a problem for her in the past.
In Gabbe’s first game as a freshman at South Eugene (Ore.) High School, she hit a game-winning shot against rival Sheldon. It was the start of an exceptional high school career.
Gabbe was a three-time all-league selection and was named all-state as a senior. She averaged 15 points and six rebounds and shot 43% on three-pointers in leading South Eugene to the state 4-A championship.
“She can give us a lift off the bench,” Irvine Coach Mark Adams said. “With her in the lineup, we add size and shooting.”
Gabbe took to the game as a first-grader at the local YMCA. By the time she was in junior high school, it was obvious she was a cut above most players.
“I put a peach basket up at our house when she was 4 years old and she just loved it,” said David Gabbe, her father. “She was always about two or three inches taller than the other kids.”
That is no longer the case, and there will be days when the learning process is painful. Gabbe went scoreless in the season opener against Arizona State Friday.
“It’s definitely tougher at this level,” Gabbe said. “But I think I can handle it.”
PLAY BALL?
November 7 was a day Irvine Athletic Director Dan Guerrero long awaited. It was the unofficial beginning of the new and, he hopes, improved Anteater baseball program, which the students voted to reinstate in a referendum last spring.
The Anteaters will not play their first game until the 2001-2002 school year, but the first steps have been taken to renovate the baseball field. Irvine officials have hired HNTB, an architectural company that has designed several stadiums, including Bank One Ball Park in Phoenix, to specify the features and design type of the stadium, which is to be completely rebuilt. That rough draft is expected to be ready by spring, when bids will go out.
Guerrero and other Irvine officials have spent recent weeks touring minor league baseball stadiums in Lake Elsinore, San Bernardino and Rancho Cucamonga, as well as the ballpark at San Diego State.
Funding for the new stadium is one of Guerrero’s top priorities.
“The key will be selling the naming rights,” said Guerrero, who played baseball at UCLA. “Not only for the stadium, but the clubhouse, the press box.”
Hmmm. “The Brady Anderson On-Deck Circle?” The Baltimore Oriole outfielder, and former Anteater, has yet to be contacted. He won’t be hard to find. Anderson is working out at Irvine these days, in a weight room he funded near the track stadium.
For the record, the Irvine men’s team defeated San Diego State, 2-1, in the last soccer game played on the current baseball field. Next season, the Anteater soccer teams will move to the track stadium, where lights will be added.
GOOD GRIEF
Eric Monterastelli had a team-high 10 goals for the Irvine men’s soccer team this season. The secret to his success?
“Eric is like Pig Pen, that Peanuts character,” Coach George Kuntz said. “There will be all this dust around the goal and, when it settles, Eric is standing there with his arms raised and the ball is in the back of the next.”
DEBUT DELAYED
Cal State Fullerton’s Dan Thompson, a freshman from Australia, was eager to make his college basketball debut in the season opener against Simon Fraser Friday, but he had to sit out the game because of a foot injury.
“I was hoping for some good minutes, so the injury is disappointing,” Thompson said. “I thought my foot was just bruised at first, but it continued to feel worse.”
Thompson, a member of Australia’s under-20 national team, will undergo tests today to determine if he has a stress fracture. If he does, he could miss two more weeks.
The Titans play their home opener Tuesday night against San Diego, which won at UC Irvine, 75-62, Friday night.
Staff writer Lon Eubanks contributed to this story.
