DAVIS, Calif. — Last year, the Portland State women's basketball team beat a good UC Davis team at home to help launch the Vikings to their title-winning 2018-19 season. This year, the Vikings went on the road and beat the Aggies 76-70 Saturday behind a career day for junior guard Kylie Jimenez.
 
What the win leads into later this season remains to be seen, but for now, the victory goes down as the best of the early season for a young Viking team. The Aggies (2-5) were a fellow NCAA tournament team last season, and came into Saturday playing their best basketball of the season following a two-game winning streak that included a double-overtime victory over Sacramento State.
 
"UC Davis is a tough team. They had struggled to shoot it this year but they were hitting their shots today," head coach Lynn Kennedy said afterwards. "I thought we played catch up the entire first half and ultimately survived the half only being down two. We had several players come off the bench and give us good minutes. That gave us confidence going into the second half."
 
Jimenez scored 17 of her game-high 25 points in the second half when she also hit three of her five three-pointers. Jimenez's 25 points were her second most ever as a Viking, while she set or tied career highs with five three-pointers and eight steals. Jimenez also added five rebounds and two assists while playing all 40 minutes of the game for the Vikings.
 
"We saw some things defensively that they were doing that allowed us to showcase Kylie in the second half," Kennedy said. "She hit some big shots but it really came down to our defensive effort in the fourth and getting key stops and rebounds. You have to get those to get wins on the road."
 
Jimenez's five threes came as part of 10 three-pointers for the Vikings (3-3), the third time in six games this season that the Vikings have hit 10 or more shots from beyond the arc. Freshman Belle Frazier hit three of the Vikings' other five shots from deep, while sophomore Desirae Hansen accounted for the other two.
 
Frazier hit a three-pointer at the buzzer going into half, and then hit another just out of halftime that gave the Vikings a 43-42 lead early in the second half. Frazier hit a fast-break layup a couple of minutes later to give her 15 points by that point of the game as she led the Vikings in the early part against the Aggies.
 
Jimenez took over from there, starting with a three-pointer that gave the Vikings a 50-49 lead. The teams went back and forth from there until another three-pointer from Jimenez – her fourth of the game – made it 59-55 with 52 seconds left in the third quarter.
 
Jimenez then ran off seven straight points in the fourth quarter as the Vikings scored the first nine of the final period to take their largest lead of the game at 68-58 with 6:11 remaining.
 
The Aggies responded with five quick points to get back within 68-63, but Frazier came up with a big jumper on a second-chance opportunity to push the Viking lead back out to seven.
 
The Aggies rattled off another 5-0 run and had a chance to tie it when Frazier came up big again with a steal that gave the Vikings the ball back with just over two minutes remaining. Redshirt junior Tatiana Streun followed with a layup to put the Vikings up four again at 72-68.
 
UC Davis responded with two free throws to make it 72-70, but that would be the last time they'd score. The Vikings held the Aggies without a field goal over the final 2:46 of the game, while Jimenez closed out the win with four free throws in the final 35 seconds.
 
The Aggies made their shots early in the game, as they went 9-of-17 from the field in the first quarter and 5-of-7 from beyond the arc. The Viking defense stepped up from there, however, as the Aggies went 14-of-42 (.333) over the last three quarters. The Aggies finished with 11 three-pointers, but seven of those came in the first half while the Vikings held them to 4-of-14 from deep in the second half.
 
Besides Jimenez, Frazier finished with a career-high 17 points for the Vikings, and set another career high with five rebounds. Streun and senior Jordan Stotler finished with 11 points each while chipping in seven and eight rebounds, respectively. Freshman forward Syd Schultz led all players with nine rebounds in the game, six of which came on the offensive end. 
 
As a team, the Vikings went 18-of-18 from the line, tied for the second most makes without a miss in program history. The Vikings are now shooting .842 from the line this season, better than the national leader coming into today, which was Lipscomb at .832.
 
The Vikings face another tough team on the road Monday, when they head to UC Irvine for a rematch of a consolation game within the Preseason WNIT earlier this season. The Anteaters won that game, 83-75, but the Vikings have won their last two games since then.
 
Tipoff between the Vikings and Anteaters Monday is scheduled for 7 p.m. (PT).
 
Game Notes: The Vikings improved to 11-5 all time against UC Davis with Saturday's win…The Vikings won for the first time on the road this season, and for the first time when they trailed at halftime…Jimenez needs just six three-pointers, 10 assists and 10 steals to enter the all-time top 10 at Portland State in those three categories.