HONOLULU, Hawai'i — Portland State head women's basketball coach Chelsey Gregg said the Vikings' trip to Hawai'i would be a business trip, not just a pleasure trip. And so far, Gregg's young Vikings have followed through on that, as they improved to 3-0 after beating Prairie View A&M 75-61 in their first game at the Bank of Hawai'i Classic.
 
The win didn't come without its lessons for this young Viking team. Playing away from home for the first time this season, the Vikings got their first taste of adversity despite leading for all but the first two-plus minutes of the game.
 
The Vikings first had to adjust to a rescheduled game time. Saturday's game came at 9 a.m. local time after a delayed flight meant the Lady Panthers couldn't make Friday's previously scheduled game time of 6:30 p.m. PT / 4:30 p.m. HT.
 
Additionally, turnovers and foul trouble plagued the Vikings at times Saturday. The Vikings committed a season high 21 turnovers, which led to 15 points for the Lady Panthers, while both Rhema Ogele and Reilly Kelty picked up three fouls in the first half alone.
 
"Proud of our team for staying ready and for their response to the pressure and foul trouble," Portland State head coach Chelsey Gregg said afterwards. "We feel like we've found a different way to win in each of these first three games. We have different people who can step up and give us that spark. It was a total team effort today."
 
Ogele picked up her fourth foul on the opening possession of the third quarter, as Prairie View A&M's Diana Rosenthal completed a three-point play to start the second half. A Portland State turnover then led to another bucket for the Lady Panthers that cut the Vikings' lead to five at 36-31 early in the third quarter.
 
But that would be as close as the Lady Panthers would get thanks to a series of three-pointers for the Vikings over the middle part of the quarter. The Vikings hit 5-of-8 from deep in the third quarter, after going just 3-of-11 in the opening 20 minutes. Jada Lewis hit three of the Vikings' five shots from the outside, part of a career night for the Viking junior.
 
Lewis topped the career high she set last week, as she finished with 23 points while going 7-of-12 from three-point range. Lewis' seven makes from deep marked another new career high, while the junior guard added six rebounds, three steals and two assists.
 
All three of Lewis' third-quarter triples came in a span of two and a half minutes. Back-to-back three-pointers from Alaya Fitzgerald and Lewis pushed the Vikings' lead back out to double digits at 49-36 with 5:56 remaining. Lewis then sandwiched a three from the Lady Panthers' Rosenthal with two more of her own, the second of which gave the Vikings a 55-41 lead with 3:24 remaining. 
 
"It's always an energy-giving, momentum switch when you see consecutive threes go in," Gregg said. "Jada was shot-ready and came up big for us. We switched up our on-ball action and stopped settling for quick, one-pass shot attempts."
 
Lewis hit her final three-pointer of the game to open the fourth quarter for the Vikings, kicking off the Vikings' 7-0 run start to the final quarter. That gave the Vikings a 20-point lead at 62-42 with 7:47 remaining.
 
The Lady Panthers wouldn't go away, however, as they scored 10 straight in less than two minutes of game time to make it 64-54 with 5:12 remaining. But the Viking defense got some important stops down the stretch, while Savannah Dhaliwal hit a dagger three-pointer with 2:24 remaining that put the Vikings back up by 14 at 72-58. 
 
Dhaliwal, who has been playing for the first time since the 2018-19 season after a pair of ACL tears, recorded the first double-double of her career Saturday. Dhaliwal totaled 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting to go with 11 rebounds, five of which came on the offensive glass.
 
Fitzgerald also went into double figures for the third straight game to open the season, finishing with 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting to go with two rebounds and two steals.
 
Freshman point guard Esmeralda Morales scored 19 points despite an off shooting night, thanks in part to going 8-of-10 from the free-throw line. Morales added six assists, three rebounds and three steals to her 19 points Saturday.
 
Even with Ogele, who came into the weekend leading the Big Sky with 12.0 rebounds per game, playing less than 12 minutes due to foul trouble, the Vikings still out-rebounded the Lady Panthers, 41-to-39. Additionally, the Viking defense forced the Lady Panthers into 25 turnovers while totaling 11 steals.
 
The Vikings will now have about 30 hours in between games at the Bank of Hawai'i Classic, as they face host Hawai'i at 7 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. HT Sunday.
 
Game Notes: Saturday's game was the first-ever meeting between the Vikings and Lady Panthers…The Vikings shot just 10-of-32 (.313) from the field in the first half, but followed up by going 14-of-31 (.452) in the second half…The Vikings shot a season-high 27 free throws in the game, though they only made 17 of those as they hit 63.0 percent of their shots from the line.