BOISE, Idaho — The Portland State women's basketball team can take a breath. Playing their ninth game in the past 19 days – and their third against Idaho in the past eight – the Vikings fell 75-52 to the Vandals in the first round of the Big Sky tournament Monday at Idaho Central Arena.
The loss ends a season that alternated between periods of dead quiet and exhausting frenzy. The Vikings went 27 days without playing a game, then played 10 in 23 days between Jan. 15 and Feb. 7. The Vikings then had another 10-day hiatus before closing their season with nine games in 19 days from Feb. 17 to March 7.
"Not the ending we were looking for, but I'm really proud of our team and the resiliency that we showed," Portland State head coach
Chelsey Gregg said after the game. "We don't talk about it often because we want to be a team that's not about excuses, but the reality is that we had a long year. We had several challenges and I feel like our team faced them head-on. Without excuses. They continued to show up for each other. And that's what I think we're going to need moving forward."
Monday reflected the promise of what's ahead for the Vikings (5-24), who started three freshmen in every game this season. Two of those freshmen –
Esmeralda Morales and
Rhema Ogele – led the Vikings against the Vandals. The pair combined for 19 of the Vikings' 23 points in the first half, and finished with 34 combined thanks to a career-high 23 for Ogele.
Ogele was a huge bright spot for the Vikings Monday. The freshman center scored seven straight points by herself in the middle of the fourth quarter as she helped the Vikings show some fight despite a big deficit down the stretch. Ogele finished with a career-high 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting, with her 23 points nine more than her previous career-high, which came all the way back in the second game of the season.
Ogele also came within one rebound of a double-double as she added nine boards, three on the offensive glass.
"This season has taught me a lot as a player but also as a person. I started playing basketball my freshman year [of high school] and it was really interesting to go from high school to college. It's not only me, but my teammates and coaching staff teaching me what things to do, what things not to do. So ,I'm really thankful to my team for getting me here," Ogele said of her big game.
Ogele scored eight of the Vikings' first 15 points, as she exploded out of the gates to keep the team in it early. Ogele hit two free throws to give the Vikings their only lead of the game at 11-9, then alternated buckets with the Vandals a little later to make it 19-15 Idaho with 2:01 left in the opening period.
It was all Vandals (13-17) from there, however. They closed the first quarter on an 8-0 run, then closed the second quarter on a 12-2 run that put them up 43-23 at halftime. A 10-0 start to the third put the Vandals up 30 at 53-23, and the Vikings never got closer than 21 the rest of the way despite Ogele's heroics in the fourth.
The Vikings couldn't make enough shots to keep pace with the Vandals early in the game. They finished the first half just 8-of-29 (.276) from the field, and went 4-of-16 (.250) in the third quarter before shooting better in the fourth.
The Vandals, meanwhile, got the shots they wanted and hit them. They were 17-of-35 (.486) at halftime and finished the game 29-of-70 (.414) from the field.
The Vikings matched the Vandals on the glass, 42-42, and even out-scored them 28-26 in the paint. The 42 rebounds marked the Vikings' most against a Big Sky opponent this season, and continued a positive trend on the glass for the Vikings to finish the season. Through 15 Big Sky games, the Vikings hadn't out-rebounded an opponent until they got the better of Montana State, 39-37, on Feb. 21. Since then, the Vikings finished minus-1 or better in four of their final seven games of the season.
Besides Ogele,
Mia 'Uhila tied her career-high with eight rebounds, while
Morgan Baird grabbed six rebounds and
Savannah Dhaliwal had five.
Scoring-wise, only Ogele and Morales went into double figures for the Vikings. Morales finished with 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting behind Ogele's 23. Outside of those two, Dhaliwal finished with the next-highest total with six to go with her five rebounds.
Dhaliwal represents the lone senior on this year's team, meaning the Vikings have the potential to bring everybody else back next season.
"I think something we can continue to work on is consistency," Gregg said in reflecting on the season. "We did a lot of things well towards the end, but the reality is how often can we do those things? And for how long? We continue to talk about chunks of time. Can we go five minutes at a time? Can we win this? Can we win the rebounding battle? Limit our turnovers.
"We talk about the cliché 'trust the process' but that's the reality. It's always about us and how we want to get better and what we're building moving forward."
And perhaps next season, the Vikings will have a chance to catch their breath.
Game Notes: The Vikings fell to 14-33 all-time against the Vandals with the loss…The Vikings and Vandals have met in four of the past five Big Sky tournaments with the Vandals 3-1 in those matchups…The Vandals won the turnover battle, 15-9, and shot better from the outside, 8-of-28 (.288) vs. 2-of-17 (.118)…The Vikings shot more free throws than the Vandals for the first time in their three meetings this season, going 12-of-19 (.632) from the line compared to 9-of-15 (.600) for the Vandals.
