PORTLAND, Ore. — With seven seconds to go before halftime, Portland State sophomore guard Mia 'Uhila stripped a Lewis & Clark player, collected the loose ball, and then fired a sweet, no-look pass around a defender to teammate Kiana Yesiki for an easy layup. The halftime clock expired two seconds later, and the Viking bench surrounded a screaming 'Uhila.
 
It's the exact level of intensity that typified the Vikings' 91-37 exhibition win over Lewis & Clark Thursday night at Viking Pavilion, as well as exactly what the Vikings hope to see throughout their upcoming 2022-23 season.
 
"I was pleased with our intensity defensively. I mean, holding a team to nine made field goals is a real positive," Portland State head coach Chelsey Gregg said afterwards. "Some areas to clean up, for sure, but really pleased with how we shared the basketball and our intensity defensively and just the energy overall. I thought we had really great energy on the bench while other players were out there. Just really encouraging and it makes a difference."
 
'Uhila's steal and no-look pass gave the Vikings a 55-20 halftime lead as she sparked the Vikings in a big second quarter. The Vikings out-scored the Pioneers 34-13 in the period, with the 34 points marking a would-be record for a single quarter if it had been a counting game for the Vikings. 'Uhila led the Vikings with eight points in the second period while adding two rebounds, two assists and two steals.
 
"We could do shoutouts for a lot of our players up and down, but I really thought that Mia brought the intensity and just a different swagger and pace to the game when she came in, especially in that second quarter," Gregg said of 'Uhila. "The way she plays, and her ability to get up and down and dish out no-look passes, is just really fun to watch and to play with [for the other players]. She really gave us that spark we needed to pull away."
 
'Uhila finished with a game-high 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting to go with seven rebounds, six assists and three steals. She led four Vikings in double figures, as Rhema Ogele followed with 15 points and 10 rebounds – six on the offensive glass – while Yesiki and sophomore Alaya Fitzgerald added 11 and 10 points, respectively.
 
Good passing fueled the Vikings' scoring Thursday. The Vikings assisted on 20 of their 35 field goals against the Pioneers, a number that would have been the Vikings' third-best assist total last season. 'Uhila led the team with six assists, while Yesiki and Fitzgerald added three assists each.
 
The team's intensity really showed up in the Vikings' rebounding and defensive numbers. The Vikings progressively turned the intensity up on the glass throughout Thursday's game. The Pioneers actually out-rebounded the Vikings 12-to-11 in the first quarter, but the Vikings countered with a 54-to-35 advantage over the final three quarters. The Vikings finished with 65 rebounds Thursday – 12 more than they had in any game last season.
 
Besides Ogele, Reilly Kelty also went into double figures while posting a game-high 13 rebounds, five of which came on the offensive glass. As a team, the Vikings recorded 20 offensive rebounds, which contributed to a 24-5 advantage in second-chance points and a 58-2 advantage on points in the paint.
 
"We continue to talk about it, if we want to go where we want to go, rebounding is going to be a big piece of it. Whether we're in man or zone, we have to be able to rebound. We want to play more of an up-tempo, fast-paced game with some easy buckets, but we cannot do that if we don't commit to rebounding," Gregg said.
 
Defensively, the Vikings held the Pioneers to only nine made field goals while limiting them to 14.1 percent (9-of-64) from the floor.
 
PSU finished 35-of-76 (.461) from the field, though things got started slowly for the Vikings. They scored just three buckets through the first four minutes of the game, but then picked things up from there. They closed the first quarter on a 9-0 run, then scored 20 of the first 27 points in the second quarter to take a commanding 47-14 lead.
 
Ogele fueled a 10-0 start to the third quarter that stretched it to a 65-20 lead for the Vikings. Ogele scored six of the Vikings' 10 points in the run, with her last bucket pushing her to 7-of-9 from the field at that point in the game.
 
Yesiki took control in the fourth quarter, when she scored seven of her 11 points. Paige Winter-Blanchard also scored six of her nine points in the fourth quarter, while Kelty had eight of her game-high 13 rebounds and four of her six points.
 
Thursday's win provides a good lead-in to the Vikings' official season opener, which comes Monday, Nov. 7, when the Vikings host Warner Pacific at 6 p.m.
 
"Momentum," Gregg said of how Thursday's win helps the Vikings prepare for Monday. "It's coming into this game and respecting your opponent and playing hard and really getting some things done. It just really helps us going into Monday."
 
The Vikings faced Warner Pacific in last season's opener, too. Esmeralda Morales brought the intensity to that game, scoring a freshman-record 32 points in her Viking debut.
 
Thursday night, the Vikings got intensity from every player, which is exactly what they'll hope for Monday night against Warner Pacific, as well as every other game this season.