Portland Vikings Star Alicia Carline Making Name for Herself

Women’s basketball is not big on the radar of most New Zealanders, according to Portland State’s 6-foot-3 junior centre Alicia Carline, 22, but because she was already tall, her mother, Angela, got her into the game at the club level when she was four or five.

The sport grew on her and she played prep basketball for Freyburg High School in Palmerston North before moving to Gillette Community College in rural Wyoming.

What is it like going from a relatively sophisticated New Zealand community with three universities to a community that had grown by 48 per cent in 10 years because it is rich in energy resources … in one of the least populated states in America?

“It was a massive culture shock. The first time I saw a gun, it really took me by surprise,” Carline says.

Soon after arriving in the United States, Carline signed with Division I team, the Portland Vikings.

Comparing Wyoming and Portland “is like comparing two extremes of the spectrum.”

“The culture in Portland is much closer to New Zealand,” she says.

Carline is now is averaging 8.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game for the Vikings. She also posted double-doubles in each of her first two games for Portland State.

A criminology major, Carline wants to be involved in law enforcement in New Zealand, where she will return after college.

Original article by John Wykoff, Goviks.com, December 29, 2014.