PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland State women's basketball team picked itself up after a tough road loss at Southern Utah Thursday, playing 32 minutes of their best basketball of the season while hosting Northern Arizona at Viking Pavilion Saturday. But the end-of-game situations went against the Vikings for the second straight game, as the Lumberjacks erased an 11-point Viking lead in the fourth quarter to beat the Vikings, 79-68.
 
So, the Vikings have to pick themselves off the mat again.
 
"We continue to talk about choices. We can choose to come out and compete and not look at the record and not look at the scoreboard and just compete. And so, I liked our response tonight [after Thursday]," Portland State head coach Chelsey Gregg said after the game.
 
"We can see that when we get rebounds and push the pace, we're a pretty good team. But when we struggle to get those stops and get those rebounds, we can't push pace and we just have to be better in the half-court execution."
 
The Vikings (5-11, 0-8 Big Sky) led 68-61 with 3:50 remaining, but the Lumberjacks (9-8, 6-3 Big Sky) held the Vikings scoreless from there while pouring in the final 18 points of the game.
 
NAU's press gave the Vikings fits down the stretch. The Lumberjacks forced the Vikings into nine turnovers in the fourth quarter alone, and four of those came during NAU's run over the final four minutes of the game.
 
"Where I was disappointed tonight was how we allowed them to have larger runs," Gregg said of the late-game run for NAU. "We have to continue to learn and be a little bit more disciplined in those moments where they make runs. We've got to be able to counter. I think we did during the game, but that last run, we couldn't find a way to execute and go get our own."
 
It was the second straight ending that spoiled what could have been a breakout performance for the Vikings. Thursday night saw the Vikings erase an 11-point deficit to league-leading Southern Utah and take a 63-62 lead with 1:12 remaining. A few plays went against the Vikings in the final minute, however, as the Thunderbirds came back to win, 64-63, on a last-second free throw with 0.8 seconds remaining.
 
Saturday night featured just as many positives as Thursday night. The Vikings assisted on 19 of their 29 field goals Saturday, tied for their most in a game since they had a season-high 23 in their win over Dixie State on Nov. 12. Alaya Fitzgerald set a new career-high with eight assists, while Esmeralda Morales followed with five of her own.
 
Fitzgerald's career-high eight assists came as part of her best game yet as a Viking. Fitzgerald totaled 15 points, six assists and three steals in the first half, and finished the game with 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting overall and 3-of-4 from three-point range. All told, Fitzgerald either set or tied her career-highs for points (23), field goal percentage (.750), field goals made (9), three-pointers made (3), assists (8), steals (3), and minutes played (37) in the game.
 
"Lay's mindset, after having a tough one at Southern Utah – she competed, but the ball just wasn't going in the hole – for her to come back and have this type of performance is great," Gregg said of Fitzgerald.
 
"I'm most proud of her assists. We've been talking as a team about seeing that next pass and that second option if you don't have yours. What's the next best look? And clearly Lay saw that tonight."
 
Savannah Dhaliwal was also near-perfect from the field, as she finished 7-of-9 overall and 2-of-3 from three-point range while scoring 16 points to go with four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Dhaliwal had a career night against Southern Utah Thursday, finishing with 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting and 3-of-4 from three-point range.
 
Fitzgerald and Dhaliwal went a combined 16-of-21 (.762) from the field Saturday, while the Vikings topped 50.0 percent as a team for only the third time this season. The Vikings shot 29-of-57 (.509) against the Lumberjacks, and went 8-of-21 (.381) from three-point range.
 
The Vikings started 6-of-10 from beyond the arc, as they ran out to a big lead early in the game. The Vikings led 22-11 after the first quarter, and soon stretched that out to their largest lead of the game at 27-11 with 9:19 remaining before halftime.
 
NAU started to hit some shots after that, however. The Lumberjacks shot 4-of-16 (.250) in the first quarter but went 10-of-13 (.769) in the second period. NAU went 9-of-15 (.600) in the fourth quarter, including a perfect 6-of-6 (1.000) from three-point range. 
 
The Vikings' offense, meanwhile, tapered off in the fourth quarter. The Vikings hit their first two shots of the period to go up 63-52 with eight minutes remaining, but then hit just two of their final 12 shots in the game.
 
The Vikings' 45 points in the first half still marked the team's best scoring output in any half since they scored 48 points in the first half of their season opener against Warner Pacific on Nov. 9.
 
So, if the Vikings can find that level again Monday night against Southern Utah (5 p.m. tipoff), they'll finally get the breakthrough they may have deserved in their past two games.
 
"Short memory. We've got No. 1 [in the conference] coming into our place, we're ready to run it back. But we have to play a complete game, not just three-quarters," Gregg said.
 
Game Notes: The Vikings still lead the all-time series between them and the Lumberjacks, 30-24, despite Saturday's loss…The Vikings had won 12 straight games against the Lumberjacks until losing Saturday…Morales was the only other Viking in double figures besides Fitzgerald and Dhaliwal, as she finished with 11 points, five assists and four steals…The Vikings scored a season-high 40 points in the paint Saturday and out-scored NAU 40-20 in the paint.