RENO, Nev. – You gotta make your free throws. The Vikings did just that, knocking off No. 2 North Dakota, 65-62, in the quarterfinals of the 2017 Big Sky Women's Basketball Tournament in Reno, Nev. Portland State's win sends them to the Big Sky semifinals for the first time since 2011.
 
The Vikings went 20-for-25 from the free-throw line for the game, hitting one clutch free throw after another over the final minutes of the game.
 
Portland State (16-16 overall) led 59-51 after sophomore G Kian McNair hit a pair of free throws with 2:48 left in the game. North Dakota (20-10) hit a pair of free throws of its own to make it a six-point game with 2:17 left.
 
The Vikings picked it up on defense, holding the Fighting Hawks scoreless over the next 1:34 before Lexi Klabo scored UND's first basket in over four minutes to make it a four-point game at 59-55.
 
Senior G Ashley Torres Negron hit a pair of free throws to put Portland State up six as North Dakota started to foul to extend the game. Klabo hit another layup after an offensive rebound to again make it a four-point game.
 
That cycle repeated itself as UND fouled, Sidney Rielly hit a pair of free throws, and Klabo hit a layup to make it a four-point game at 63-59.
 
The Vikings inbounded it to Ashley Bolston who went 1-for-2 at the line to put the Vikings up five with :16 seconds left. The Fighting Hawks drove down the court and Makailah Dyer hit an NBA three-pointer to make it a two-point game with :10 seconds left.
 
North Dakota fouled McNair on the inbounds, she missed the first free throw but then came through with the second to put the Vikings up 65-62.
 
The Fighting Hawks had to drive the length of the court for Dyer to launch the potential game-tying three-pointer, it bounced off the rim and into the waiting hands of Cici West as the Vikings survived and advanced to Friday's Big Sky semifinal game. They will take on the No. 6 Idaho State after the Bengals upset No. 3 Northern Colorado, 60-59.
                                                                                                                                                  
"It feels good. I'm so proud of our players and how they played. We were prepared for this game and were confident coming in," second-year Head Coach Lynn Kennedy said after the upset victory. "We know North Dakota is the best team in our conference, they proved it throughout the season. We were fortunate to get a win against them at home, which knocked them down to No. 2. We felt confident and felt that we matched up well with our length."
 
Bolston led the Vikings with 20 points in the game, going 6-for-20 from the floor with a three-pointer. She had success getting to the line in the second half, hitting 7-of-9 from the line. Bolston's 6-foot-2 length wreaked havoc on the Fighting Hawks as she tallied a career-high eight steals, tying the Big Sky Tournament single-game record.
 
Bolston's 20 points gives her 507 points on the season, which gives the Vikings two players with over 500 points on the season. Sidney Rielly leads the team with 509 points on the year. It is the first time during Portland State's Division I era that teammates have surpassed the 500-point plateau in the same season. Laurie Northrop (634 points) and Sheri Stemple (556) are the only other pair of teammates to do so while PSU while playing at the Division II level in 1991-92.
 
Torres Negron, not wanting this to be the final game of her career, came off the bench for a season-high 14 points, going 4-for-8 from the floor with two of the Vikings' five three-pointers. She also came up big at the line, going 4-for-5. In her three career tournament games, Torres Negron is averaging 16.0 ppg after scoring 11 points against NAU Wednesday night and a career-high 23 points last season in a loss to Weber State.
 
The Vikings got tremendous production off their bench, who scored 31 combined points. McNair added 10 points of the bench, going 6-for-7 at the line. Cici West added seven points and a team-high nine rebounds over 26 minutes.
 
"The thing that I love about this team is that anyone can step up at any time," Kennedy added. "I have confidence in 1 through 15 on our team and you saw that tonight. Two nights ago, we had Courtney (West) and Sidney (Rielly) step up and tonight it was Ashley (Bolston), Ashley (Torres Negron) had a great game as well. I'm so proud of how we played."
 
Courtney West, coming off her eight-block performance against UND last week, was limited to just 20 minutes due to two quick fouls in the first half. She scored two points with four rebounds but made her presence known in the middle, tallying four blocks. Pia Jurhar played tremendous defense for the Vikings in the middle over 27 minutes.
 
West is now in sole possession of fourth all time in the Big Sky with 92 blocks this season.
 
Portland State's 2-3 defense continues to give opponents all kinds of trouble in the tournament. After holding Northern Arizona to 41.7 percent on Wednesday, the Vikings held North Dakota to 37.9 percent and limited their three-pointers to just 6-of-17 from distance.
 
After UND took a 4-0 lead to open the game, the Vikings went on a 7-0 run to take a three-point lead. Dyer tied the game at 11-11 late in the first before a pair of free throws from McNair gave the Vikings a 13-11 lead at the end of the first.
 
The Fighting Hawks took a one-point lead a couple of times in the second quarter but the Vikings came right back and led 25-24 at the half.
 
Down by three (30-27) midway through the third quarter, Corey James hit an open three-pointer to tie the game at 30-30. That began a 10-2 run that opened the game up for the Vikings. After James' three, Bolston scored seven-straight points to give the Vikings a 37-32 lead with 2:19 left in the third.
 
UND went on an 8-0 run to take a three-point lead before Torres Negron hit a three-pointer of her own to tie the game at 40-40. The Fighting Hawks hit a late jumper to take a two-point lead (42-40) heading to the fourth.
 
The Fighting Hawks hit the first basket of the fourth to go up four but the Vikings countered with a 10-0 run to take a six-point lead, they would never trail again. From that point on, the Vikings hit only two field goals over the final five minutes but they were tremendous at the line. They hit 9-fo-11 from the line over the final 3:23 to secure their trip to the semifinals.
 
NOTES:
• Sophomore G Ashley Bolston Big Sky Tournament single-game record with eight steals.
• Bolston posted her 12th 20-point game of the year.
• Senior G Ashley Torres Negron scored a
• Portland State won back-to-back Big Sky Tournament games for the first time since winning it all in 2010.
• Portland State is 16-16 overall on the season, its most wins since going 20-12 in 2010-11.
• Portland State has won six of its last eight games.