Portland proved themselves tonight with an upset win over Utah. They came in as heavy underdogs in the major sports lines, as well as most pundits' predictions, but that hardly mattered to coach Bob and his team. "All they hype was 'Utah this; Utah that' coming into the game. It's like we didn't even exist. I think we proved our point." That they did, led by the spectacularp play of their star, Arnold.

"Coach said that all we had to do was go out and play our best and we could win, and we knew he was right," he said later. "So that's what we did, and we showed that we can play with anyone."

Losing coach Coach Young was disappointed with his team's effort. "I think we started believing our own press," he said. "Everyone was saying we'd come away with the easy win, so we went in expecting it to be handed to us on a silver platter. But you've got to give credit where it's due, and Bob had his team playing as well as they've played all year."

Portland was led by Arnold (25 points, 13 boards, 0 assists), Williams (17 points, 3 assists), Chapple (21 points). Utah was led by Henderson (14 points, 7 boards, 3 assists, a block), Tracy (10 points, 8 boards, 2 assists, 2 blocks), Riser (5 points, a steal, a block).

Portland jump to 1-2 and 1-0 at home. They stay at #5 in the Northwest and advance to #12 overall in the Western Conference. With today's defeat, Utah are now 2-2. They hold at #2 in the Northwest and drop to #8 overall in the Western Conference.

box score Portland roster Utah* roster