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CEDAR CITY, Utah – The Portland State women's basketball team fell to the Southern Utah Thunderbirds 83-60 Thursday night at the Centrum Arena in Cedar City, Utah.

Senior guard Courtney VanBrocklin scored a team-high 20 points for the Vikings on 7-of-15 shooting from the floor. It was the second consecutive 20-point game for VanBrocklin and her seventh of the season.

Sophomore guard Allison Greene scored 14 points with six rebounds for the Vikings while freshman guard Emily Easom scored nine points with a pair of three-pointers.

The Vikings struggled down low with the absence of junior forward Angela Misa. Misa will miss the rest of the season due to a knee injury. She had been averaging over 10 points and 10 rebounds a game for the Vikings.

Thursday night the Vikings were outrebounded 50-to-37 and outscored in the paint 40-22. Keaton McFadden started for the Vikings and recorded six rebounds and three points in 20 minutes. Freshman center Aleigh Krug played a career-high 20 minutes for the Vikings and played well recording four rebounds.

“I call myself an optimist and that's what I have to be,” Head Coach Sherri Murrell said following the game. “At no time do I want to lose by 20 points but there is a bright spot in this. Younger players are going to get some good playing time and our injured players are going to come back, and come back stronger.”

Portland State (11-13 overall, 5-10 Big Sky Conference) held an early lead twice before Southern Utah (12-12, 6-8) tied the game at 13-13. From that point on it was pretty much all Thunderbirds. They went on a 24-4 run to stretch their lead to 20 points at 37-17. Portland State cut the first half lead to 16 before Southern Utah took a 48-26 lead at the half.

The Vikings cut the lead to 15 points with 16:44 left in the second half. The Thunderbirds led by as much as 29 points twice in the second half before winning the game 83-60.

Southern Utah's Hailey Mandelko scored a game-high 22 points but the Vikings held her to just five points in the second half after making some nice defensive adjustments at the break.

The Vikings will have a week off before they take on Eastern Washington in the second installment of “The Dam Cup” rivalry on Feb. 21 in Cheney, Wash.