OGDEN, Utah — Showing fight can sometimes go unrewarded. But you still fought. You got off the mat.  The Portland State women's basketball team can perhaps take solace in that as the Vikings erased a 15-point second-half deficit to tie their game against Weber State late, but ultimately fell 73-65 Wednesday night at the Dee Events Center.
 
"Beyond proud of the way our team showed up tonight, their fight, and how they stayed together," Portland State head coach Chelsey Gregg said after the game. "We could've made a gazillion excuses about why we shouldn't be in the game, but we chose to show up and compete like that in our fourth game in seven days. I'm simply proud."
 
The Vikings (5-19, 0-16) trailed 49-34 less than three minutes into the second half, and still trailed by 10 points at the start of the fourth quarter. But back-to-back three-pointers – the second of which came on a third-chance opportunity – brought the Vikings back within four at 61-57 with more than six minutes remaining. Savannah Dhaliwal hit the first one, then got the second of two offensive rebounds that led to a three for Mia 'Uhila (Jenna Kilty had the other).
 
Neither team scored for more than two minutes after that, before Weber State's Daryn Hickok hit a pull-up jumper in the paint with just over four minutes remaining. The Vikings remained scoreless for another 90 seconds after that, before Jada Lewis snapped the scoreless spell with back-to-back threes that tied the game at 63-63 with 2:15 remaining.
 
But the Wildcats (10-17, 6-12 Big Sky) owned the final two minutes as they followed Lewis' heroics with nine straight points. The Vikings didn't score again until 12 seconds remained, and by then the layup from Esmeralda Morales only made it 72-65. A final free throw from Weber State's Jadyn Matthews gave the game its final score.
 
It's the second straight game in which the Vikings showed grit in the second half despite a loss. Monday night, the Vikings started to crawl back from a big halftime deficit against Montana State at the start of the third quarter, but then couldn't answer the Bobcats' counter punch. Wednesday, the Vikings answered the counterpunch from the Wildcats with their late charge in the fourth quarter.
 
Dhaliwal has caught fire for the Vikings coming out of halftime in each of the past two games. Dhaliwal scored 10 of her 13 points Monday night in the first five minutes of the third quarter against the Bobcats. Wednesday night, Dhaliwal again scored 10 points right after halftime, though this time she was the only Viking scoring. The Viking senior scored 10 straight points for the Vikings to singlehandedly keep the team in the game after the Wildcats went up by 15 early in the period.
 
Still, the Wildcats pushed it back out to a 13-point lead before Morales ended the third quarter with a three-point play that came off of a fast-break opportunity just before the buzzer. Lewis then followed with a three-pointer on the Vikings' opening possession of the fourth quarter, cutting it to a seven-point deficit with two key plays on either side of the quarter break.
 
Lewis finished with 22 points – one off her career-high – while going 8-of-12 (.667) from the field and 6-of-10 (.600) from three-point range. Lewis went 3-of-5 from deep in the fourth quarter, as she accounted for nine of the Vikings' 17 points in the final period.
 
Dhaliwal, meanwhile, finished with 17 points – 12 of which came in the third quarter – while going 7-of-10 from the field and 1-of-3 from three-point range. Dhaliwal also added 11 rebounds to her 17 points, giving her a double-double for the second time this season.
 
"We got great offensive outputs from our upperclassmen," Gregg said of Lewis and Dhaliwal. "Sav was dominant inside and Jada gave us a needed lift from the outside."
 
Overall, the Vikings rebounded well for the second straight game. The Vikings won the rebounding battle Monday night against Montana State, which was their first rebound win over a Big Sky opponent this season. Wednesday night, the Vikings matched Weber State, 32-32. Both games have shown signs of improvement for a Viking team that entered Monday's game against Montana State ranked last in the Big Sky Conference in total rebounds per game, defensive rebounds per game and rebounding margin.
 
The part of the Vikings' game that they'll hope to clean up after Wednesday was their turnovers. The Vikings committed 19 turnovers which led to 24 points for the Wildcats. On the flip side, the Vikings only forced five turnovers from the Wildcats and scored only two points off of those five extra possessions.
 
Otherwise, the Vikings played well defensively, especially in the second half. The Vikings held the Wildcats to only two field goals in the fourth quarter as Weber State shot just 14.3 percent from the field (2-of-14) in the final period. The Wildcats shot just 26.7 percent (8-of-30) in the second half as a whole, though they made up for it from the line where they were 17-of-22 (.773) in the second half and 24-of-29 (.828) over the course of the whole game. The Vikings, in contrast, went just 6-of-11 (.545) from the line.
 
Besides Lewis and Dhaliwal, Morales also went into double figures with 10 points while chipping in five assists, three rebounds and a steal. 'Uhila scored eight points to go with three rebounds and two assists.
 
As Gregg noted, Wednesday's contest was the Vikings' fourth game in the past seven days as the Vikings have been playing every other day since last Thursday. The Vikings get two days off before their next game, which will come at Idaho State Saturday at 1 p.m. PT / 2 p.m. MT. They'll then be back to playing every other day for their final four games of the regular season.
 
It's a tough schedule, which is why the Vikings' choice to get off the mat and fight back Wednesday was admirable. Just keep punching back.
 
Game Notes: The all-time series between the Vikings and Wildcats is now tied, 30-30, after the Wildcats' win Wednesday…Lewis now has five games this season with at least five three-pointers in a game, as well as three with six three-pointers or more…Lewis is averaging 4.0 three-pointers made per game in the Vikings' last three games after she was held without a three-pointer at Northern Arizona last Thursday…The Vikings outshot the Wildcats .500-to.386 Wednesday, with their .500 mark standing as their second-best percentage against a Big Sky opponent this season (.509 vs. Northern Arizona on Jan. 29).