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PHOENIX, Ariz. — The Portland State women's basketball team had won six straight picture-perfect games going into their game against Grand Canyon Tuesday. Tuesday's game was anything but picture perfect but the Vikings still found a way to gut out a win on the road, beating the Lopes 60-55 at GCU Arena.
 
As a result, the Vikings – who beat UTEP 89-61 on the road Sunday – won their first two road games to open the season for the first time since the 2005-06 season, and improved to 7-0 for the first time since the Vikings were a Division II program in 1994-95. The Vikings have never started a season better than 7-0 as a Division I program.
 
"It was important for us to finish the road trip with a sweep," Portland State head coach Lynn Kennedy said of his team pulling out the win against the Lopes (2-6). "Give GCU a lot of credit. That was the best they have played all year. We needed this test to get ready for conference, and to come away with a win is a good feeling."
 
The Vikings made their coach and their fans sweat in the final moments, as GCU came back from a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter to make it a single-possession game with more than two and a half minutes remaining.
 
Senior forward Courtney West hit a jumper off an in-bounds pass from sophomore point guard Kylie Jimenez with 7:35 remaining that gave the Vikings a 52-40 lead. GCU responded with a 10-2 run to make it a four-point game with 5:13 remaining, however, and then cut the Vikings' lead to two at 56-54 with 2:41 remaining.
 
Jimenez found Bolston deep in the paint on the Vikings' next possession to push the lead back to four points, and then senior guard Sidney Rielly came up with a big block on a GCU fast break that kept the Vikings up three at 58-55 with just over a minute remaining.
 
GCU still trailed by only three points when the Lopes stole a PSU in-bounds with 24 seconds remaining, giving themselves a chance at a potential game-tying three-pointer. GCU's Kavita Akula missed an open three-pointer from the left wing with 18 seconds remaining, but Taylor Caldwell got the offensive rebound to give the Lopes another look. Bolston rose to the occasion for the Vikings from there, however, coming up with a big steal as the Lopes were passing it around the three-point line, and then hitting two free throws with seven seconds remaining that iced the game.
 
"Toughness," Kennedy said of what got the Vikings through the final moments of the game Tuesday. "We could have given up in this game. So many factors were going against us but we kept playing hard and stayed together."
 
The Vikings needed toughness to get over an ugly second quarter in which the teams combined for only eight points while committing 18 combined turnovers and going 3-of-22 combined from the floor. Neither team scored for more than seven minutes at the start of the second quarter, until GCU's Sharon Miller hit a layup with 2:53 remaining before halftime.
 
The Vikings still led 25-24 at the break in spite of their ugly second quarter, and then reasserted themselves in the third quarter. GCU hit a three-pointer to take a 27-25 lead right out of halftime, but Jimenez responded right away with a three of her own – the Vikings' first three of the game at that point – to give the Vikings the lead right back.
 
Bolston found West and Rielly on subsequent possessions to put the Vikings back up five at 32-27, and junior forward Jordan Stotler followed with a jumper on a pick-and-roll from Jimenez that made it 34-27. Bolston found Rielly again on the team's next possession, while Jimenez in turn fed Bolston on an in-bounds play that stretched the Vikings' run to 13-0 and made it 38-27 PSU with 6:29 left in the third quarter.
 
"Smile," Kennedy said of his message to the team at halftime. "Enjoy playing together and do the things that allowed us to get to this part of the season."
 
The Vikings maintained at least a three-possession lead from there, until the Lopes made their run in the fourth quarter.
 
Bolston finished with a game-high 19 points to lead the Vikings, going 6-of-13 from the field and 7-of-7 from the free throw line while adding four assists and four steals. Rielly, West and Jimenez all joined Bolston in double figures as that foursome accounted for 56 of the Vikings' 60 points in the game. Rielly finished with 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting, while West added 12 points, seven rebounds and three blocks, and Jimenez totaled 11 points and six assists for the Vikings.
 
Stotler only scored two points, but led the Vikings with eight rebounds, three coming on the offensive end, and blocked two shots.
 
The Vikings return home for a game against UNLV Saturday at 2 p.m. (PT) the Viking Pavilion.
 
Game Notes: The Vikings improved to 8-0 all time against the Lopes with Tuesday's win…Tuesday's game was the first time this season the Vikings hadn't won by double digits…With 14 points Tuesday, Rielly moved up to 15th all time in scoring at Portland State with 1,139 career points…West now has 185 blocks in her career, most all time at Portland State and seventh all time within the Big Sky Conference.