PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland State women's basketball team looked like a team eager to play after a 27-day layoff at the beginning of Saturday's game against Sacramento State. The Vikings ran out to a 30-25 halftime lead while holding the Hornets to 10-of-33 (.303) shooting from the field.
 
But the same 27-day hiatus that made the Vikings eager to get back on the court also meant the team may have not had the legs to finish Saturday, as the Hornets, who have been playing throughout December and January, came back to beat the Vikings, 70-58.
 
"I'm proud of our team for how they came out. We don't want to be a team that makes excuses. We don't want to lean into that, at all. But I think there is a reality when you haven't played for 27 days," Portland State head coach Chelsey Gregg said of the game afterward. "We still haven't practiced with a full squad yet. So, there's a reality to that. I'm still proud of the team for showing up and competing really well. We just weren't as sharp in the second half."
 
The game marked the Vikings' first counting game since they beat Simpson University on Dec. 19 last month. The Vikings had four conference games postponed since then, which they'll start to make up Monday, when they kick off a five-game road trip at Eastern Washington.
 
The Hornets played two games during the Vikings' 27-day hiatus, and that extra game conditioning may have helped them down the stretch. The Hornets certainly turned around their offense in the second half, as they went 13-of-24 (.542) over the final 20 minutes after the Vikings held them to 30.3 percent in the first half.
 
The Vikings answered the first run from the Hornets in the second half, but they may have not had the legs to answer a second run in the fourth quarter. The Hornets initially took the lead with a 10-0 run midway through the third quarter, but the Vikings closed the quarter on an 8-2 run of their own to get back within one at 48-47 entering the fourth. The Hornets opened the fourth quarter with a 13-2 run, however, that put them back in control, up 61-49.
 
Alaya Fitzgerald hit a three-pointer to get the Vikings back within seven with 3:19 left, and Savannah Dhaliwal answered a Sacramento State free throw with two of her own to make it 62-56 with 2:32 remaining. The Hornets responded with eight straight points, however, which put the game away.
 
The Vikings started the game strong defensively, especially against the Hornets' two key newcomers in Isnelle Natabou and Lianna Tillman. The Vikings forced seven turnovers off four steals in the opening 10 minutes, while holding the Hornets to only nine points.
 
"It gives us something to hold on to," Gregg said of the defense in the first quarter. "Usually when we're [playing defense] in front of our bench, we tend to do pretty well. Our staff is great and our bench is great at calling out stuff that we scouted. We made them go away from what they do really well.
 
"But then, Tillman is good enough to then play out of that, and that hurt us. And then when you give second-chance opportunities to Natabou, that's where it became a little bit more challenging for us."
 
Natabou and Tillman got going in the second half, while the Hornets limited themselves to only four turnovers over the final three quarters. Natabou scored 12 of her 14 points after halftime, while she tied a single-game record for a Viking opponent with 22 rebounds in the game. Tillman, meanwhile, scored 16 of her game-high 29 points in the second half, and added five rebounds and five assists after the break.
 
Alaya Fitzgerald led the Vikings with 15 points on 6-of-15 shooting to go with five rebounds and three steals. Savannah Dhaliwal, Esmeralda Morales and Jada Lewis all finished with 13 points each behind Fitzgerald, as the four of them accounted for 54 of the Vikings' 58 points in the game.
 
"Proud of the effort that those girls gave and their ability to compete at a pretty high level when we haven't done so in a really long time," Gregg said of the four.
 
Lewis added a career-high 11 rebounds to her 13 points, as the junior guard completed the first double-double of her career.
 
"As a guard, to get 11 rebounds, I thought Jada really came out and helped us on the boards. That definitely gave us a lift there," Gregg said of Lewis.
 
The Vikings will hope Saturday's game got them back in game shape a bit, as they head to Eastern Washington for a road game against the Eagles at 2 p.m. Monday. That game kicks off a five-game road trip for the Vikings, as they'll also play at Montana (Jan. 20), Montana State (Jan. 22), Idaho (Jan. 24) and Southern Utah (Jan. 27) in the coming days.
 
"We get to play again," Gregg said of the upcoming schedule and Monday's game against the Eagles. "As much as we want to say, 'man, it's going to be a challenge.' It's also exciting that we don't have to wait another week to get better. We don't have to wait another week to compete. We have an opportunity to do that right away and get better. So, I feel like that has to be our mentality going into [the long road trip]." 
 
Game Notes: The Vikings still lead the all-time series between them and the Hornets, 33-20, despite Saturday's loss…Sacramento State is the fourth straight opponent to fail to shoot over 30 percent from three-point range against the Vikings, as they finished 7-of-24 (.292) Saturday…Natabou tied the single-game rebounding record for a Viking opponent that Angel Petrich set when the Vikings played Seattle Pacific on Dec. 5, 1987.