BOISE, Idaho — At some point after she's retired, Portland State women's basketball player Desirae Hansen will have to plant a tree in Cheney, Wash. It's the least she could do after Hansen and the Vikings eliminated the Eagles from the Big Sky tournament for the fourth straight season.
 
Hansen has been part of the last three of those. She hit the game-winning shot in the 2019 Big Sky championship game, and led the Vikings with 27 points in a first-round win over the Eagles last season. Monday, Hansen led the Vikings to a wire-to-wire victory as the Vikings beat the Eagles 71-51 in the first round of this year's tournament at Idaho Central Arena.
 
Hansen scored the first five points of the game for the Vikings, who led 11-0 less than four minutes into the game. The Eagles got back within two at 18-16 early in the second quarter, but the Vikings pushed it back out to a double-digit advantage by halftime, and then poured it on with a 10-0 run in the third quarter.
 
"Today we got a complete game. We've had some really good games where we had two or three good quarters – some games we only had one quarter – but we kept battling, we kept fighting all through the season. I thought today we put it all together. You want to be playing your best basketball in March, and we've done that the last few years," Portland State head coach Lynn Kennedy said afterwards.
 
The 20-point margin of victory was the largest for the Vikings against a Division I opponent this season. To put that in perspective, the Vikings' last five wins in Big Sky play came by a combined total of 10 points – half the team's margin Monday.
 
The complete performance came with one of the best shooting games the Vikings have had in some time. The numbers dropped once the game was out of reach, but the Vikings were 23-of-49 (.469) near the start of the fourth quarter, which would have gone down as their second-best shooting performance since the middle of January. The Vikings shot 16-of-30 (.533) combined between the second and third quarters, and went 6-of-12 (.500) from three-point range in those two quarters.
 
The Vikings, meanwhile, held Eastern Washington to 30.0 percent (15-of-50) from the field, the lowest percentage for a Division I opponent against the Vikings this season. The Vikings also grabbed 12 steals off 19 Eastern Washington turnovers, which they turned into a 24-to-7 advantage in points off turnovers.
 
"We really focused on the defensive end the last couple of days, just our rotations, our hands. We got tip balls early, we got 50-50 steals, and we turned them over in the first two quarters. That allowed for some easy transition buckets, and better offensive flow. It really started on the defensive end," Kennedy said.
 
Three-point shooting distanced the Vikings from the Eagles through the first three quarters. Hansen had two quick three-pointers in the first quarter, the second of which came with 2:51 left and put her over 1,000-career points as a Viking. Jada Lewis also capped the Vikings' 11-0 start with a rare four-point play, hitting a triple from the left wing while being fouled.
 
Lewis then followed a three from Kylie Jimenez with her second of the game to make it 30-19 with 4:36 left in the second quarter. Jimenez hit from deep again right before halftime, as Hansen fed her in the left corner to put the Vikings up 37-26 at the break.
 
Tatiana Streun and Morgan Baird scored the first eight points of the second half from the inside, but the team soon got hot again from deep. Lewis and Hansen both connected as part of the Vikings' 10-0 run in the third, while Lewis knocked down her fourth and final three-pointer with 37 seconds left in the third. 
 
Baird and Streun then stepped up in the paint again at the start of the fourth, scoring the Vikings' first six points while stretching it to a 26-point lead.
 
Streun, Lewis, Hansen and Jimenez all finished in double figures for the Vikings, while Baird nearly gave the Vikings a fifth with eight points. Streun and Lewis led the Vikings with 16 points apiece, while Hansen and Jimenez chipped in 15 and 12 points, respectively.
 
"I feel like we play really well here. I think our numbers show it. We've just got to keep playing our basketball, team basketball," Hansen said after Monday's game.
 
Hansen added five rebounds, four assists and three steals to her 15 points Monday. Lewis nearly matched that with five rebounds, three assists and three steals herself. Four of Streun's six rebounds came on the offensive end, while she also had two steals for the Vikings. Baird grabbed three offensive rebounds while finishing with six boards and two steals to go with her eight points.
 
The Vikings will now turn their attention to top-seeded Idaho State, which they'll face in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky tournament tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT / 11 a.m. MT.
 
"We look forward to tomorrow. I think we've done a good job of preparing the last two months for this moment. We've had some ups and downs this season. We got a late start. But I love how we keep fighting every game. And I thought the players really showed up today, and it was a team win," Kennedy said.
 
Game Notes: The Vikings improved to 35-40 all-time against the Eagles after Monday's win…The Vikings also improved to 5-1 against the Eagles at the Big Sky tournament, including four straight wins over the previous four seasons…Streun's six rebounds Monday moved her past Hiedi Hatcher (1997-01) for ninth all-time at Portland State with 615 career rebounds…As long as Jimenez starts tomorrow's game, she will tie the career record for games started that Kelsey Kahle set at 122 from 2005-09…Hansen became the fourth different Viking to reach the 1,000-point milestone over the past four seasons, joining Sidney Rielly (hit 1k in 2017-18), Ashley Bolston (2018-19) and Jimenez (2019-20).