The Columbus Quest was a professional

women's basketball Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It began being played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large part via women's college compet ...

franchise located in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

in the now-defunct American Basketball League (ABL). They were one of the league's original eight teams that started play in 1996. In the league's brief history, the Quest was its most successful franchise, winning both championships the league awarded. The Quest's head coach was Brian Agler, who finished with a record of 82–22 during the team's two-plus seasons of existence. After Agler left the Quest midseason to become the head coach of the WNBA's

Minnesota Lynx The Minnesota Lynx are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team won the WNBA title in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017. Founded pr ...

, the team was coached by player-coach

Tonya Edwards Tonya LaRay Edwards (born March 13, 1968) is an American retired professional basketball player born in Flint, Michigan, currently an assistant coach of the Chicago Sky in the WNBA. She was previously head coach of the Alcorn State Lady Braves ...

The New York Times - PLUS: PRO BASKETBALL -- A.B.L.; Edwards Wins Debut As a Player-Coach"> . Many of the Quest's players later played for the Lynx, including Edwards, Katie Smith,

Andrea Lloyd-Curry Andrea Lane Lloyd (born September 2, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player, a 2007 inductee into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, and previous television analyst for the Minnesota Lynx. Currently she is working as a te ...

, Angie Potthoff and Shanele Stires. The Quest played their home games at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in

Battelle Hall Battelle Hall (originally known as the Ohio Center) is a 6,864 seat multi-purpose exhibit hall located in Columbus, Ohio, part of the Greater Columbus Convention Center. It opened as the Ohio Center on September 10, 1980, and although sometimes c ...

. Despite being the league's most successful team, they had the league's lowest average attendance for all three years of the ABL's existence.

Season-By-Season

1996–97

*Finished 31–9, won Eastern Conference by 10 games *Defeated San Jose Lasers in Semifinals 2–0 (best of 3) **Game 1 at San Jose: Columbus 94, San Jose 69 **Game 2 at Columbus: Columbus 81, San Jose 69 *Defeated

Richmond Rage Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

in Championship 3–2 (best of 5) **Game 1 at Columbus: Columbus 90, Richmond 89 **Game 2 at Columbus: Richmond 75, Columbus 62 **Game 3 at Richmond: Richmond 72, Columbus 67 **Game 4 at Richmond: Columbus 95, Richmond 84 **Game 5 at Columbus: Columbus 77, Richmond 64 *

Nikki McCray Nikki Kesangane McCray-Penson (born December 17, 1971) is the former head coach of the Mississippi State Bulldogs women's basketball team and a former professional women's basketball player. She played in the Women's National Basketball Associat ...

named Most Valuable Player *Brian Agler named Coach of the Year *

Valerie Still Valerie Still (born 1961) is an American former professional women's basketball player with the Washington Mystics of the WNBA and the Columbus Quest of the American Basketball League (ABL). During her four years at the University of ...

named Playoffs Most Valuable Player

1997–98

*Finished 36–8, won Eastern Conference by 12 games *Defeated San Jose Lasers in Semifinals 2–0 (best of 3) **Game 1 at Columbus: Columbus 94, San Jose 88 **Game 2 at San Jose: Columbus 74, San Jose 62 *Defeated Long Beach Stingrays in Championship 3–2 (best of 5) **Game 1 at Long Beach: Long Beach 65, Columbus 62 **Game 2 at Long Beach: Long Beach 71, Columbus 61 **Game 3 at Columbus: Columbus 70, Long Beach 61 **Game 4 at Columbus: Columbus 68, Long Beach 53 **Game 5 at Columbus: Columbus 86, Long Beach 81 *Valerie Still named Playoffs Most Valuable Player

1998–99

*Finished 11–3, leading Eastern Conference by 2 games

References

{{reflist American Basketball League (1996–1998) teams Defunct basketball teams in the United States Basketball teams established in 1996 Basketball teams in Ohio Sports clubs disestablished in 1998 Sports teams in Columbus, Ohio Women's sports in Ohio ca:American Basketball League III