PORTLAND, Ore. — The last half of basketball that Viking fans will see from their Portland State women's basketball team before the holiday break left a pretty sweet taste in everyone's mouth. A 25-2 third quarter saw the Vikings blow open what had been an eight-point game at halftime, as the Vikings scored 53 points in the second half of an 83-45 win over Evergreen Tuesday night at Viking Pavilion.
 
Up 30-22 at the break, the Vikings (5-5) scored the first 18 points of the third quarter as they didn't allow the Geoducks (5-3) for nearly eight minutes of game time. Jada Lewis helped open the flood gates, as she hit three straight three-pointers out of halftime. Esmeralda Morales followed with two more later in the quarter, while the Vikings would eventually hit nine of their season-high 13 makes from beyond the arc in the second half.
 
The Vikings also set a season high with 23 assists, which came on 27 field goals. Only two of the Vikings' 14 available players didn't record an assist Tuesday, while four different players had at least three between Alaya Fitzgerald (4), Mia 'Uhila (4), Morales (3) and Cinco McCartney (3).
 
"Better second half," Portland State head coach Chelsey Gregg said after the game. "We talked about controlling what we can control [at halftime] and how we weren't locked in to begin with. Kudos to Evergreen. They gave us a really great fight and hit some shots early. But in the second half, we came back with a renewed focus. We went back to sharing the basketball and had better flow offensively."
 
It wasn't that way throughout Tuesday night. The Vikings shot just 4-of-14 (.286) from the field in the first quarter, and only led by two at 10-8 after the opening 10 minutes. The three-point shooting wasn't there, either, as the Vikings missed their first five shots from deep.
 
Morales eventually hit the Vikings' first triple of the game with 7:23 left in the second quarter. Lewis then hit her first three-pointer a few minutes later to put the Vikings up seven at 22-15, while 'Uhila followed with one of her own around 90 seconds later. Fitzgerald hit a last-second triple from the right corner just before the halftime buzzer and suddenly the Vikings had made four of their last five attempts after starting the game 0-of-5 from deep.
 
That momentum carried into the second half, with Lewis hitting three of her first four attempts, and the Vikings didn't look back.
 
"Unfortunately, a lot of times our intensity and effort is based off of whether the ball is going in or not. You can just feel it as a team, like 'man, it's not going in again.' We had that the other night against New Mexico State, so it was definitely nice to see them go in tonight. From then on, it felt like we could just settle in and shoot with confidence," Gregg said of the team's three-point shooting.
 
"It also comes with good shot selection. When it's a good shot and it's inside-out or a good reversal and it's within the flow of our offense, those are good shots. A one-pass shot? Not so much. So, I think knowing when to take those threes, too, is big."
 
Lewis and Morales both finished with four makes each. The pair came into the game ranked first and tied for second in the Big Sky, respectively, for three-pointers made per game, and yet, it had been a while since they had both been firing in the same game. Lewis has made at least four three-pointers in five of her last six games, but she and Morales hadn't both made four in the same game since the Vikings' win over Fresno State on Dec. 1.
 
Just as impressive and important as the Vikings finding their shooting stroke again, though, was the team's defensive effort in the third quarter. The two points the Vikings gave up to Evergreen in the third quarter tied the fewest they've allowed in a single quarter. The Vikings originally set the record with another 25-2 quarter against Multnomah University on Nov. 25, 2017.
 
"I was proud of that," Gregg said of the defensive performance in the quarter. "That third quarter was really a testament to what we can do when we lock in and we take care of business and take care of ourselves. I thought that was a great effort."
 
Part of the Vikings' defensive effort was a season-best performance on the glass. The Vikings set a season high – to go with the ones they set for assists (23) and three-pointers (13) – with 41 rebounds while out-rebounding the Geoducks by 13. Morales, the shortest Viking, actually tied Lewis for the game high with seven rebounds in the game. Fitzgerald and Reilly Kelty also had five rebounds each.
 
The team's big burst in the third quarter afforded the Vikings the luxury to go deep to their bench. That included the return of Nakia Boston, who dressed for the first time in 651 days after being sidelined for a season and a half with an ankle injury. Boston played 11 minutes in her return, while finishing with four points, an assist and a steal.
 
"It was great to see her get some minutes," Gregg said of Boston. "She hadn't had live play in quite some time, but she's really persevered through her injuries, so it was great to see her get some minutes on the floor again."
 
Alani Encinas also made her Viking debut, playing just over four minutes in the fourth quarter.
 
Sofía Llanos scored her first collegiate points with a flurry of three straight three-pointers in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter. Every Llanos three-pointer was met with an explosion on the team's bench.
 
"I loved the celebrations," Gregg said of Llanos' late threes. "It was nice just to see everybody get the opportunity to show what they can do and give our kids who normally get a lot of minutes to be encouraging and supporting of their teammates who are typically in that role for them. I think it is really important to flip that and show that they'll do that, too."
 
Llanos finished with nine points off the bench, while Paige Winter Blanchard also had a season-high 10 points while playing a season-high 15 minutes. Morales tied for the game high with 20 points, while Lewis added 12 and Fitzgerald nine.
 
The Vikings will now break for the holidays until next week when they start prepping for their first Big Sky game against Sacramento State. The Vikings will host that game on New Year's Eve at 2 p.m., which will then launch the Vikings into conference play in 2023.
 
Tuesday marked the Vikings' non-conference finale, the last 20 minutes of which saw the Vikings play as good as ever.
 
Game Notes: Tuesday's game was the first-ever counting game between the Vikings and Geoducks…The Vikings went 16-of-18 (.889) from the line, with Winter-Blanchard going a perfect 8-of-8…The Vikings shot 52.0 percent from three-point range, and went 13-of-20 (.625) from deep after missing their first five outside shots in the game.