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BOISE, Idaho — On a team with three all-time great fifth-year seniors, it was a freshman who hit the game-winning shot with 3.1 seconds, delivering the Portland State women's basketball team its first Big Sky tournament title since 2010 with a 61-59, come-from-behind win over Eastern Washington at CenturyLink Arena.
With the game tied at 59-59 and 20.3 seconds remaining, the Vikings (25-7) passed to freshman
Desirae Hansen, who beat her defender with a crossover to her right and then hit a high-arching fadeaway to put the Vikings up with 3.1 seconds remaining. The Eagles (13-20) got a final look at a potential game-tying shot, but Violet Kapri Morrow's jumper from the left baseline hit the rim and bounced off to give the Vikings the victory.
"We had three options on that play. That wasn't an option, the fadeaway jumper that Des hit," head coach
Lynn Kennedy said afterwards of the final play. "We do last second situations all the time in practice and Des hits more last-second shots than anyone. We were kind of saving it for the right moment, and today she stepped up. She wasn't a freshman today. She was a veteran player that stepped up and hit a big-time shot that a lot of pro players can't make."
The Vikings, playing in their first Big Sky championship game since 2011, earned just their second Big Sky tournament title with the victory, and their first since the 2009-10 season. The Vikings now await their seeding in the NCAA tournament, which will be revealed on ESPN's selection show at 4 p.m. (PT) Monday.
"We started something special four years ago," Kennedy, who took over as head coach in April of 2015, said afterwards. "It took some time, but I'd just like to thank all of our fans, alumni and community supporters for being there for us all year and seeing us through the years.
"Seeing the growth in these players and to have it unfold the way it did tonight is just something special. This championship is for all of them. Four years ago they believed in a system that wasn't in place – we didn't even have a team, I think there were only three players on campus when I arrived – they believed in an arena that wasn't built, and they went to work."
It didn't look positive for the Vikings at 57-50 down with just over five minutes remaining. Eastern Washington's Grace Kirscher hit a jumper in the paint with 5:27 left to give the Eagles their largest lead of the game to that point. What's more, the Eagles, who had made the championship game with upsets of third-seeded Idaho State and second-seeded Northern Colorado on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, had led throughout the second half to that point.
The Viking defense stiffened from there, however, holding the Eagles scoreless for more than five minutes after Kirscher's shot, while outscoring the Eagles 11-2 over the final five minutes of the game.
Senior guard
Sidney Rielly started the run with a huge three-pointer from straightaway out of a timeout. The Eagles turned the ball over on their next possession, and junior forward
Jordan Stotler followed with a layup off a spin move in the lane to make it a two-point game at 57-55 with 4:11 remaining.
The Viking defense forced two more turnovers from the Eagles on their next two possessions, and sophomore point guard
Kylie Jimenez tied it up with a baseline jumper with 2:28 remaining.
A fourth straight turnover from the Eagles gave the ball back to the Vikings, and senior guard
Ashley Bolston put the Vikings up for the first time in the second half at 59-57 with a contested jumper along the right baseline.
Eastern Washington missed a shot the next time down the court, but the Vikings couldn't add to their lead, and gave the ball back to the Eagles with 28.2 seconds remaining. The shot clock was off at that point, but the Eagles elected to shoot the ball early as Jessica McDowell-White tied it up with a floater with 20.3 seconds remaining.
That gave the Vikings the ball back, and Kennedy called a timeout to set up the final shot. The Vikings held the ball until there were about 10 seconds remaining, at which point Jimenez passed to Hansen, who hit the game-winning shot over the Eagles' Bella Cravens.
"Coach put the ball in my hands, told me what to do and what to look for. He trusted me so I shot the ball," Hansen said of the play afterwards. "Every little kid dreams of hitting a shot like that. You just shoot it for fun and then one day it becomes reality."
Hansen's game-winner was only her second field goal of the game, as she finished with four points on 2-of-6 shooting to go with three rebounds.
Bolston dominated the game throughout as she finished with 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting to go with 10 rebounds and five assists. Bolston scored in double figures in all three Big Sky tournament games, and was named the Big Sky tournament MVP after the game.
The Vikings' other fifth-year seniors –
Courtney West and
Sidney Rielly – also hit double figures Friday, along with Stotler. West scored 11 for the Vikings on 5-of-11 shooting while adding seven rebounds and four blocks. Rielly scored 10 points, including her big three-pointer with five minutes left in the fourth, while Stotler was a rebound shy of a double-double with 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting to go with nine rebounds.
The Eagles held the lead for nearly 30 minutes in the game, and trailed for all of 90 seconds in the second half.
The Eagles first took control of the game at the end of the first quarter when the Vikings committed turnovers on seven of eight possessions. The Eagles scored 11 in a row off of those turnovers, giving them a 17-11 lead with 9:13 remaining before half.
The Vikings came back to tie it at 22-22 with 2:30 left in the half, but the Eagles hit three three-pointers in the final two and a half minutes to retake the lead going into the break. The Eagles finished with six three-pointers in the first half, while the Vikings were just 2-of-10 from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes.
"It was important that we extended out defensively," Kennedy said of the Vikings' defensive adjustments. "Our press kind of put them back on their heels a little bit, and it took 10 to 12 seconds off the shot clock. They were doing a really good job of picking us apart, but our press delayed them from getting into their set until about 14 or 15 seconds on the shot clock so they had to speed up a bit. I thought that really changed the game."
The Eagles hit their eighth three-pointer of the game to go up 45-42 with 5:58 remaining, but the Vikings held them to only one more the rest of the way, and none in the fourth quarter.
The Vikings held a huge advantage in the paint, outscoring them 32-12. The Vikings also out-rebounded the Eagles, 38-33, and held a 14-4 advantage on second-chance points. The Vikings also tightened their ball control after the early part of the second quarter, as they didn't allow Eastern Washington another point off a turnover following that point of the game.
Friday's tournament title completes a meteoric growth over the last four years for the Vikings. The Vikings won only four games during Kennedy's first year on the Park Blocks in 2015-16, but raised that to 25 with Bolston, Rielly, West and
Pia Jurhar as seniors this season.
"In this moment, it's just a special thing," Kennedy said of the team's seniors going out on top. "I probably slept a total of six hours over the past two nights. Not because I was nervous for the game, but because I wanted this so bad for our seniors. I think just seeing them and what they've done the last three to four years is remarkable. Everybody contributed, everybody gave everything that they had. It was a team effort today, but that's a special senior class that finished their careers with a championship."
Game Notes: The Vikings improved to 32-37 all time in their series with Eastern Washington…The Vikings also improved to 3-1 against the Eagles in the Big Sky tournament…The Vikings improved to 12-10 all time in the Big Sky tournament with the victory…The Vikings are also now 2-3 in Big Sky championship games…This was the Vikings' first championship game appearance since 2011…Rielly moved into fourth all time with her 74th career 10-point game, while Bolston moved into a tie for 10th with her 66th…Bolston and Jimenez were each named to the Big Sky all-tournament team after the game…West passed Montana's Carly Selvig (2011-14) for third all time in career blocks within the Big Sky Conference during the game.
Gallery: (3/15/2019) Women's Basketball vs. Eastern Wash.
