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PORTLAND, Ore. — It's a staged shot, but senior forward Courtney West is shown blocking a shot in the Portland State women's basketball team's intro video for a reason. She showed why Thursday, breaking her own school record with nine blocks to lead the Vikings to a 63-49 win over a pesky Southern Utah team at the Viking Pavilion.
 
West set the old record as a sophomore with eight blocks in the Vikings' game against Sacramento State on Jan. 28, 2017, and then matched the record with eight more blocks against North Dakota on March 3 later that season. No player had recorded more than seven blocks in a game before West, who has now done it in three games in her Portland State career.
 
The latest blocks record came in what was likely West's most complete game as a Viking, as she did her best impression of the Portland Trail Blazers' Jusuf Nurkic with 16 points, six rebounds, four assists and a steal to go with her nine blocks.
 
"When Courtney stays straight up, she's hard to score on. The two times they did score there in the fourth, she got too low. But when she gets in the right position, she's tough to face," PSU head coach Lynn Kennedy said of West after the game.
 
The Vikings (12-2, 4-1 Big Sky) needed the big game from West, as the Thunderbirds (5-10, 2-4 Big Sky) stayed within striking distance throughout the game Thursday. The Vikings led 15-10 early in the second quarter when Southern Utah went on a 15-4 run to take its largest lead of the game at 25-19 with 2:48 remaining before halftime.
 
The Vikings turned things around with a 7-2 run to close the half, and then opened the third quarter with 12 straight points to take a 38-27 lead with 2:16 remaining in the period.
 
Southern Utah did not score a point until there was 1:50 remaining in the third quarter, but then found its way back in the game when Rebecca Cardenas – who scored all seven of the Thunderbirds' points in the third quarter – hit a big three-pointer late in the period to make it 40-34 PSU going into the fourth.
 
The Thunderbirds twice cut the Vikings' lead to four points early in the fourth quarter, and it was still a five-point game when SUU's Breanu Reid stole a pass and ran all the way down for a layup to make it 54-49 with 2:07 remaining in the game.
 
Sophomore point guard Kylie Jimenez came back with a huge three-pointer from the right baseline on the Vikings' next possession, however, and West put the icing on the cake with three straight buckets to close out the game.
 
"Give Southern Utah a lot of credit. They came and they played hard. It's been that first game on the road for them where they play hard. Against Montana State, it was a two-point or three-point game, so we knew we were going to get their best tonight," Kennedy said.
 
Senior guard Sidney Rielly put the Vikings up early against the Thunderbirds, as she scored seven of the Vikings' 13 points in the first quarter. Rielly has consistently been starting games hot for the Vikings, as she had 11 of the team's 18 points in the first quarter against Weber State last Saturday, and had 16 points in the first quarter against Montana back on Jan. 5.
 
Rielly finished with a game-high 17 points Thursday, the third straight game in which she's led the Vikings in scoring. Rielly also entered the top 10 all time for career scoring at Portland State in the game, as her 17 points upped her career total to 1,241, and moved her past Michele Hughes (1987-91) and Cathy Kuntz (1984-89) for ninth all time.
 
What's more, Rielly's 17 points came off an efficient 8-of-14 shooting performance, continuing her hot streak from the field as she's now 25-of-42 in the Vikings' last three games. West was similarly efficient while going 7-of-12 from the field, moving her Big Sky-leading field goal percentage to .590 for the season.
 
Junior forward Jordan Stotler went 4-of-6 from the field, upping her Big Sky-leading field goal percentage in conference games to .633 (19-of-30) after Thursday. Stotler finished with eight points to go with nine rebounds – six offensive – and three assists against the Thunderbirds.
 
Stotler added a blocked shot, as well Thursday, as the Vikings came within one block of the single-game team record with 13. Besides West and Stotler, senior forward Pia Jurhar had three blocks in the game for her best block total since she had three against Ole Miss on Dec. 19 last season.
 
"We had some times where it was really nice to watch [offensively]. We were getting back in the flow. It wasn't a perfect game for us, but we found a way to win. You have to do that in the Big Sky Conference."
 
The Vikings have a quick turnaround as they host Northern Arizona at 2 p.m. (PT) Saturday at the Viking Pavilion. Northern Arizona lost 65-61 at Sacramento State earlier in the day Thursday.
 
Game Notes: The Vikings improved to 14-8 all time against the Thunderbirds…The Vikings also upped their record in the Big Sky series against Southern Utah to 4-7 with the win Thursday…West now leads the Big Sky with 3.5 blocks per game, nearly double the average who ranks second in the conference, Sacramento State's Kennedy Nicholas, at 1.7 blocks per game…The national lead for blocks per game coming into Thursday's games was 3.63 by Channon Fluker of CSUN…The Vikings made just nine of their first 27 shots from the field, but finished the game hitting 18 of their last 34.