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PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland State women's basketball team erased multiple deficits to Idaho early to take a 47-45 lead with 5:03 remaining in the third quarter, and with a raucous atmosphere coming from a season-high 889 fans at the Viking Pavilion, it looked like the Vikings might take over the game from there.
 
Instead, the Vandals (17-9, 14-3 Big Sky) immediately took the lead back and then drained the Vikings (20-6, 12-5 Big Sky) behind eight second-half three-pointers, giving them an 81-68 win in what was a battle for first place in the Big Sky Conference.
 
"We needed to do a better job early on. It's one of those games that we can learn from, but at some point you have to do it or not do it, and we didn't do it tonight," PSU head coach Lynn Kennedy said afterwards.
 
"We've got to step up in these championship moments. That's what we keep talking about. We're still new to being one of the teams at the top of the conference. Like I told them earlier this week, 'it's exciting to be in these games. Let's go out and embrace it.' But we still haven't wrestled through that yet. We have three games remaining to do that."
 
The Vikings would now need significant help to earn a share of the Big Sky title, as they trail Idaho by two full games with three remaining in the regular season. The Vikings can instead focus on clinching a first-round bye at the tournament, which they can do Saturday with a win over Eastern Washington on Senior Day.
 
The Vikings will hope to not be chasing the game against the Eagles as much as they did against the Vandals Thursday. It was a game of runs throughout the first half, but the Vikings were having to comeback each time. That left the team emotionally if not physically tired when Idaho made their decisive run after the Vikings took the lead in the third quarter.
 
Idaho opened the game with 12 straight points, but the Vikings answered with 12 straight of their own to tie it. Idaho then scored 10 straight points to go up 24-14, including the first eight of the second quarter, but the Vikings again answered with seven straight points to get back within three.
 
Idaho retook a 10-point lead with a 9-2 run of their own after that, and went into halftime with an eight-point advantage at 38-30.
 
Idaho still led by eight at 43-35 less than two minutes after halftime, but that's when the Vikings would make their push for the lead. Senior forward Courtney West opened the run with a layup, bodying her defender out of the way so that fellow senior Sidney Rielly could find her for an easy bucket.
 
Freshman Desirae Hansen – who finished tied for the team lead with 15 points, her most in a Big Sky game this season – scored the next two buckets for the Vikings, the first off a good cut on an in-bounds play that led to an easy layup. Hansen was then the beneficiary of good passing on the next play, as sophomore guard Kylie Jimenez passed deep inside to senior guard Ashley Bolston, who drew two defenders and passed to Hansen on the opposite block for another easy layup.
 
Rielly followed with five straight points of her own, as she converted a three-point play to tie it at 45-45, and then scored off another in-bounds play to give the Vikings the lead at 47-45.
 
Idaho's Mikayla Ferenz – who became the Big Sky's all-time leading scorer in the game – missed a three-pointer on the Vandals' next possession, but the Vikings weren't able to add to their lead as they turned the ball over. The Vandals' Taylor Pierce – the Big Sky and NCAA leader in three-pointers this season – made the Vikings pay on the very next play, as she hit a big shot from deep that gave the Vandals the lead back for good.
 
Gina Marxen – another of the three Vandal players that rank in the top 10 of the Big Sky for three-pointers made per game – gave the Vandals a 51-48 lead with another three-pointer, and Pierce followed with six straight points to make it 59-50. 
 
Sophomore forward Savannah Dhaliwal got a late rebound and went coast-to-coast to stop the bleeding, but the Vandals took a 59-52 lead into the fourth quarter – only one point less than their eight-point lead at halftime despite all the Vikings' efforts to comeback.
 
The Vikings got another punch to the gut early in the fourth quarter when Dhaliwal went down with an apparent knee injury on the Vikings' first possession of the period. Dhaliwal had been in a good run of form for the Vikings – averaging 12.5 points per game over the Vikings' last six games – and had six points and four rebounds against the Vandals when she suffered the injury.
 
The Vikings weren't able to get any closer after that emotional hit, and by the time Marxen and Pierce hit back-to-back three-pointers at the midway point of the quarter, it was already 74-58 Idaho.
 
The Vandals finished with 15 three-pointers against the Vikings Thursday, the most by a Viking opponent this season. The Vikings, conversely, only made two three-pointers while going 2-of-8 from beyond the arc. Pierce had six three-pointers for the Vandals, while Marxen and Ferenz finished with five and four, respectively. Pierce led all scorers with 22 points in the game, while Marxen followed with 17.
 
The Vikings had plenty of bright spots individually despite the loss. West finished with a double-double – just her second this season and first in Big Sky play – while recording 12 points and 15 rebounds to go with three blocks and a steal. Five of West's game-high 15 rebounds came on the offensive end, her most offensive rebounds in a game since she had five in back-to-back games against Warner Pacific and San Jose State to open the season.
 
Hansen, meanwhile, had two different spurts of some of her most dominant play this season while chipping in 15 points for the Vikings. In addition to her four straight points during the Vikings' run to take the lead, Hansen scored or assisted on seven of nine points during a period in the second quarter when she looked like the best player on the floor.
 
Hansen kicked off the stretch with a three-pointer that snapped a run of 10 straight points for the Vandals, and then fed West on a pick-and-roll two possessions later when both defenders went with her at the perimeter. By the time Hansen hit a running jumper in the paint, she had brought the Vikings back within four at 27-23, and had a team-high seven points by the midway point of the second quarter.
 
Jimenez also scored 15 points for the Vikings, six of which came in the fourth quarter as she tried to lead a late comeback. Rielly finished in double figures with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor.s
 
Now for the second straight week, the Vikings will look to bounce back in their second game of the weekend. The Vikings lost to Idaho State last Thursday, only to come back and beat Sacramento State decisively last Saturday. Repeating that script would suit the Vikings just fine, as they host Eastern Washington at 2 p.m. (PT) Saturday at the Viking Pavilion.
 
Game Notes: The Vikings fell to 12-26 all time against Idaho, as well as 0-9 in the Big Sky series between the two schools…Idaho has won 10 straight games against the Vikings, with the Vikings' last win coming on Dec. 8, 2007…Bolston moved into the top 10 all time for career scoring in the game Thursday, as she passed Cathy Kuntz (1984-89) for 10th all time with 1,242 points…Rielly moved into a tie for eighth all time with her 69th career 10-point game.