PORTLAND, Ore. — It goes down as the same result as Thursday for the Portland State women's basketball team – a win – but Saturday's 78-60 win over Montana looked anything but the same as Thursday, when the Vikings had to overcome an 18-point first-quarter deficit in 55-53 win over Montana State.
 
The Vikings (10-2, 2-1 Big Sky) missed their first nine shots from the field against the Bobcats Thursday, but made their first six shots against the Lady Griz (8-5, 3-1 Big Sky), who came into Saturday's game undefeated in Big Sky play. Additionally, the Vikings made their first five shots from beyond the arc, two days after they went 3-of-17 from three-point range against the Bobcats.
 
"A lot of it was the same looks [as Thursday], we were just knocking them down today. We knew we could do it," PSU head coach Lynn Kennedy said after the game. "We were locked in. We were ready. I knew it going into the game. I didn't really want to say anything because I knew we were ready to play tonight."
 
The Vikings finished the first quarter 12-of-15 from the field, a stark contrast from Thursday, when the Vikings shot 2-of-12 in the opening period. The hot shooting continued in the second quarter, as the Vikings went into halftime 21-of-28 from the field, giving them a .750 field goal percentage as a team.
 
First-half records haven't been kept at Portland State, but for comparison's sake, the Big Sky Conference single-game record for field goal percentage is .680, while the Portland State single-game record is .656 – nearly 100 points lower than what the Vikings shot in the first half. No Viking team had even shot better than .600 for a full game since Feb. 7, 2008, when the Vikings hit 64.6 percent of their shots against Northern Arizona.
 
A cold spell in the second half kept the Vikings from setting any of those records, but the hot start was a welcomed change after the Vikings had struggled early in their first two Big Sky games of the season. Besides missing their first nine shots against Montana State Thursday, the Vikings also started in a hole against Northern Colorado on Monday, as they trailed 26-12 after the opening quarter in a 79-63 road loss to the Bears.
 
Saturday's win marked a return to form for the Viking offense in other respects as well. For one, the Vikings scored more than 70 points for the first time since beating UTEP 89-61 on Dec. 9 earlier this season. The win over UTEP was also the last time the Vikings beat a team by double digits, and also marked the last time the Vikings out-rebounded a team, which the Vikings did against the Lady Griz, 43-34.
 
Most importantly, Saturday's win marked a return to the Vikings' strong passing game, as the team tied a season high with 27 assists against the Lady Griz. The Vikings lead the Big Sky and rank 10th in the NCAA with 19.3 assists per game this season, but hadn't cracked 20 assists in a game since the win over UTEP. Additionally, the Vikings' 27 assists came on 32 field goals, giving the Vikings an assist percentage of 84.4 percent in the game.
 
Sophomore point guard Kylie Jimenez had nine of the Vikings' 27 assists, tying a career-high for her while putting her just one away from a double-double as she also had 10 points in the game.
 
The strong offensive showing left little drama in Saturday's game, as the Vikings led 12-2 early after converting on their first six possessions of the game.
 
The three-point shooting started from there, as senior guard Sidney Rielly hit back-to-back three-pointers to stretch the Vikings' lead to 14 at 20-6. Freshman guard Ana Tainta – who came into Saturday's game with only two made three-pointers this season but would go on to make three against the Lady Griz – added another three the next time down the court, while Rielly followed with two more threes to close out the first quarter.
 
Rielly finished with 16 points in the first quarter, more points than she's had in all games this season but her 32-point performance against the University of Portland on Dec. 1. Rielly finished 6-of-6 from the field in the first quarter, including 4-of-4 from beyond the arc.
 
"Sidney was locked in tonight," Kennedy said of Rielly. "Shooters like Sidney may have a game or two where they're in a slump, but they're always going to get out of it. They've got to just keep shooting, and that's the thing that's really nice about Sidney. She's got such a smooth shot and it was on tonight. Every shot she put up, you knew it was going in."
 
Rielly found Tainta for a left-wing three-pointer with 8:27 remaining in the second quarter that made it 34-14 Vikings.
 
Montana started to hit their three-pointers after that, as they got back within 14 points with back-to-back three-pointers following Tainta's three. The Lady Griz hit their first three three-point attempts in the second quarter after going 0-of-3 from beyond the arc in the first.
 
Freshman guard Desirae Hansen got involved from there, however, hitting a baseline jumper for her first points to make it 36-20, and then followed with a nice drive and dish to senior forward Courtney West that made it 38-22 Vikings with 5:47 remaining.
 
Jimenez pushed the Vikings' lead back out to 20 points with back-to-back scores near the end of the first half. Jimenez hit a driving baseline jumper to make it 44-26 Vikings with 3:31 remaining, and then converted a solo fast-break layup after Hansen tipped out a defensive rebound to her with 3:00 remaining.
 
The Lady Griz never got closer than 15 points in the second half, and the Vikings put the game away with a 12-0 run in the middle of the third quarter that gave them their largest lead of the game at 65-35.
 
West, senior guard Ashley Bolston and junior forward Jordan Stotler combined for a pretty fast break near the start of the run, as Bolston got a rebound on the defensive end before sending a long outlet pass up the middle to Stotler, who flicked a short pass over to West for the easy layup.
 
Hansen made a nice driving jumper in the paint to make it a 28-point game a little later, while Bolston followed with a steal and score to make it 65-35 with 3:13 remaining in the third quarter.
 
Rielly finished with a game-high 19 points against the Lazy Griz, and now sits tied with Sarah Hedgepeth (2000-04) for 12th all time at Portland State with 1,197 career points. West finished with 15 points on 7-of-7 shooting – her best offensive game since she scored a career-high 28 points in the Vikings' season opener against Warner Pacific on Nov. 9.
 
Bolston probably could have chased what would have been a record-breaking third triple-double this season, but sat the final six minutes or so and finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in the game.
 
The Vikings hit the road for one game next week, as they play at Weber State next Saturday, Jan. 12. The Vikings and Wildcats will tip off in Ogden, Utah, at 2 p.m. (MT).
 
Game Notes: The Vikings have now won four of their last five games against the Lady Griz following Saturday's win…The Vikings improved to 19-48 all time against Montana with the win, as well as 15-29 in Big Sky games…The Vikings held Montana to .318 from the field, making the Lady Griz the second straight team to fail to shoot over 35 percent from the floor against the Vikings...Kennedy recorded his 300th combined win as a head coach across all of his coaching stops with the victory.