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OPENING TIP
Coming off the high of an overtime win at UC Irvine, the Vikings will go for their third-straight win as they close out non-conference play Tuesday, Dec. 19 against the Ole Miss Rebels of the Southeastern Conference. Tip-off is slated for 8 p.m. PT at the Pamplin Sports Complex at Lewis and Clark College.

LIVE VIDEO: A live video stream will be available for Saturday's game. A Link can be found on the women's basketball schedule page at GoViks.com. 

LIVE STATS: Live stats will be available for Saturday's contest. A link can be found on the women's basketball schedule page at GoViks.com. 

FOLLOW THE VIKINGS: Fans can follow the Vikings on Twitter and Instagram. Follow @ViksWBB for all the latest news, notes, and behind the scenes photos. Follow @PSU_Vikings for the latest on all 15 Portland State Athletics programs. 

UP NEXT: Tuesday's game against Ole Miss will be the final regular season non-conference game for the Vikings. After a week off for the Christmas holiday, Portland State will open Big Sky Conference action with three straight home games beginning with the Sacramento State Hornets on Saturday, Dec. 30.  
 
STORY LINES

• Portland State is going for a season-high third-straight win.
• Portland State came back from a 16-point first-half deficit to beat UC Irvine, 82-72 in overtime, its last time out. 
• Portland State has never faced Ole Miss. 
• Portland State is 3-5 all-time against current members of the SEC. 
• JR G Sidney Rielly is coming off a season-high 30-point game, the second of her career. 
• JR F Courtney West set the Portland State all-time career blocks record her last time out. 

QUICK HITS
BY THE NUMBERS

• Portland State is 5-5 overall this season and 0-0 in Big Sky Conference play. 
• Portland State is 3-5 on the road and 2-0 at home with its home game played at the Pamplin Sports Center at Lewis & Clark College. 
• Portland State is 4-1 in its last five and 5-5 in its last 10 games. PSU is 1-1 in overtime games.  
• Portland State is averaging 73.8 ppg and allowing 72.9 ppg on the year. 
• Portland State is shooting .416 from the floor, .357 from three-point range, and .738 at the line. 

BIG SKY BATTLES

• PSU is 144-195 all-time in Big Sky games.
• PSU is 90-79 in home games and 54-116 in road games.
• PSU is 9-10 all-time at the Big Sky Tournament.

WHO'S HOT?

• JR G Sidney Rielly is third in the Big Sky Conference with 20.2 points per game. She has posted double-figures in every game and is coming off a season-high 30 points at UC Irvine. She hit the game-tying basket at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.  
• JR F Courtney West set the Portland State all-time career blocks record with a season-high five blocks at UC Riverside. She now has 120 through 43 career games (2.8 bpg).  
• After missing the first eight games due to injury, JR G Ashley Bolston is averaging 17.0 ppg game, while shooting .400 from the floor and .867 (13-for-15) at the line. She has six rebounds, seven assists, and four steals through two games. 

SCOUTING OLE MISS

• Ole Miss is  9-2 overall on the year, 7-0 at home, 1-1 on the road, and 1-1 at a neutral site. 
• Ole Miss won back-to-back games before suffering its first loss, 79-64, to Saint Louis. The Rebels won seven-straight games before falling at #9 Oregon, 90-46, over the weekend. 
• Ole Miss is averaging 74.5 points per game on the year, while holding opponents to 63.4 ppg. 
• Ole Miss is shooting .438 from the floor, .337 from distance, and .677 at the line. 
• Ole Miss is averaging 6.0 three-pointers made per game on 23.1 attempts per game. 
• JR Madinah Muhammad leads the team with 18.5 points per game on the year. She is shooting .388 from the floor and .380 from distance with a team-high 27 three-pointers. 
• SR Shandricka Sessom was averaging 18.5 ppg before suffering a season-ending ACL injury. 

NEWS AND NOTES
WINS vs. LOSSES: The Vikings are 5-5 overall this season. There is a stark contrast on the box score between wins and losses. In wins, Portland State is averaging 81.4 points per game is shooting .446 from the floor and .788 from the free-throw line. In losses, those numbers drop to 66.2 ppg, .386 from the floor, and .663 at the line. The Vikings are holding their opponents to 20.6 fewer points per game in wins. Rebounds per game and assists per game are also all up in Portland State wins this season. 

COMEBACK KIDS: In each of the last two Portland State wins, the Vikings have come back from double-digit deficits. The Vikings trailed by 11 points early in the third quarter against Northwest University before winning 63-60. Portland State trailed UC Irvine by 16 points midway through the first half before coming back to force overtime on a last-second shot. The Vikings then outscored the Anteaters 18-8 to win 82-72. 

COMEBACK WIN: Portland State trailed UC Irvine by 16 points midway through the first half before coming back to win 82-72 in overtime on Dec. 16. It was the largest deficit overcome in a win under third-year Head Coach Lynn Kennedy and the largest overcome by Portland State since it came back from down 19 to defeat Eastern Washington, 77-70, in January of 2011. 

30-POINT GAME: JR G Sidney Rielly posted the second 30-point game of her career with a season-high 30 points in the Vikings' comeback win over UC Irvine (12/16). She is the first player since Kelly Marchant (2007-11) to record multiple 30-point games for a career. Rielly, Marchant, and Kelsey Kahle are the only Vikings to record multiple 30-point games since the Vikings joined the Big Sky Conference prior to the 1996-97 season. 

IN THE RECORD BOOK: After setting the Portland State single-season blocks record in just her first year with the Vikings, JR F Courtney West quickly turned her sights on the PSU career blocks mark. West surpassed the nearly 20-year-old record with five blocks against UC Irvine (12/16). She entered the game with 115 blocks before surpassing Kellie Chander-Read's (1994-97) record of 118 in the first half. She ended the game with 120 career blocks. West is now 16 blocks away from entering the Big Sky Conference's top 20 list. 

BLOCKS TRIPLE CROWN: JR G Courtney West, in just 43 career games at Portland State, has set the PSU single-game, single-season, and career blocks record. She set the single-season record twice last season with 8 blocks against both Sacramento State and North Dakota. She also set the single-season blocks record with 94 a year ago. She now holds the career blocks mark with 120 blocks and counting.  

COMING UP CLUTCH: Over the final minute of regulation and including overtime, both Sidney Rielly and Ashley Bolston have come up clutch for the Vikings. Rielly is shooting .556 (5-for-9) from the floor and .833 (5-for-6) at the line with 15 points through 10 games. Bolston, through just two games, has 10 points in the final minute and in overtime, going 1-for-1 from the floor and 8-for-10 at the line.  

FROM DOWNTOWN: The Vikings are shooting the ball from downtown at a higher clip than they did a year ago. Portland State is shooting .357 from distance with 7.1 three-pointers made per game this season. In 2016-17, the Vikings shot .300 from three-point range with 5.6 made per game. A large reason why is the addition of guards Kylie Jimenez and Kiana Brown. They have combined for 38 of the team's 71 three-pointers on the year. JR G Sidney Rielly had just three games a year ago in which she hit three or more triples, this season she already has four such games. Brown has also hit at least one three-pointer in every game this season.

SPREADING IT AROUND: Portland State had a season-high five players score in double-figures in its win over Portland (11/28). JR G Sidney Rielly led the team with a game-high 18 points, while JR G Kiana Brown and JR F Courtney West each added 13 points. FR G Kylie Jimenez and JR G Corey James added 11 and 10 points respectively. On the season, Portland State has 34 double-digit scoring performances, 3.4 per game. 

20-POINT GAMES: Portland State had players scored 20-or-more points 25 times last season and the Vikings are off to a good start to match that this season. JR G Sidney Rielly recorded the team's first 20-point game of the year at Nevada (11/12). She has scored at least 20 points five this season, including a season-high 30-point performance at UC Irvine. Rielly's 16 career 20-point games are ninth all-time at Portland State. JR G Kiana Brown recorded her first 20-point game with a career-high 27 points at Seattle U (11/22) before FR F Savannah Dhaliwal added her first 20-point game with a career-high 26 points in a win over Multnomah (11/25). 

FRESHMAN PHENOM: FR G Kylie Jimenez has quickly made her mark on the Portland State team. She has started every game so far as the Vikings' point guard and opened her career with three-straight games of at least 13 points and two three-pointers. She leads the Vikings with 4.0 assists per game, sixth in the Big Sky. She leads the league with a 2.5 assist-to-turnover ratio. 

BENCH HELP: Over the first eight games of the season, the Vikings had just five players coming off the bench, and only two who averaged more than 10 minutes per game. The PSU bench was outscored by 9.4 points per game, while starters accounted for roughly 80-percent of the Vikings' points. The Vikings' bench got deeper with the return of JR G Ashley Bolston from injury for the game against Northwest University. 

NATIONAL LETTERS OF INTENT: Portland State has signed three student-athletes to National Letters of Intent. Desirae Hansen, Jordan Stotler, and Ana Tainta will join the Vikings for the 2018-19 academic year. 

• Hansen, a 6-foot guard from Rainier, Ore. is a three-time All-Lewis & Clark League first team honoree at Rainier High School and is coming off league MVP season. She led the Columbians to a 25-5 overall record and a league championship with a 16-2 mark. 
• Stotler, in just her first year at Umpqua Community College, was named the Northwest Athletic Conference Southern Region Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, and Freshman of the Year. She was second in the NWAC averaging 22.4 points per game and third with 13.4 rebounds per game. Stotler recorded a league-record 150 blocks and 4.84 blocks per game, 2.00 blocks per game better than second place. She is just 29 blocks away from the conference's career blocks record. She shot .484 from the floor and .345 from three-point range, hitting 39 triples.
• Tainta, a 5-foot-10 guard from Zaragoza, Spain, averaged 19.4 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game while leading the U16 and U17 teams to three-straight Regional League Championships.