DAVIS, Calif. — The 2023-24 college basketball season started Monday. So, this Portland State women's basketball team had been sitting around for three whole days waiting to open its season.
 
That's important context to know because the Vikings played like an antsy kid, finally free after serving a five-minute timeout at the start of recess when they finally opened their season Thursday against UC Davis. The Vikings (1-0) used a big first half to spark them to a 71-62 road victory at University Credit Union Center over an Aggie team picked to finish third in the Big West Conference this season.
 
A 14-0 PSU run to finish the first half made it a 21-point game at the break. The Vikings were shooting 16-of-25 (.640) as a team at the point, while junior Rhema Ogele was a perfect 9-of-9 from the field in the opening 20 minutes.
 
UC Davis (1-1) made it a game in the second half, eventually cutting the Viking lead all the way down to four in the final minute, but a dagger three from Esmeralda Morales on the next possession sealed the win for the Vikings.
 
"Loved our energy and intensity on the defensive end. That carried over and gave us confidence to make shots on the offensive end," Portland State head coach Chelsey Gregg said afterwards. "We weather their runs and showed our growth and maturity in that area. Just a great team win."
 
Gregg promised greater maturity from her team this season, and nothing fans saw Thursday would counter that. The Vikings used to give up leads after big runs like the Aggies put on in the second half, especially on the road where the Vikings were just 3-10 last season. But the Vikings never gave up the lead Thursday and led for nearly 39 of the game's 40 minutes.
 
Rebounding and defense were the two areas Gregg said she hoped to see the team's maturity reflected. Tick…and…tick. The Vikings out-rebounded the Aggies, 36-to-35, and held the Aggies to 38.7 percent (24-of-62) from the field. The Aggies were shooting just 25.0 percent at the half, after the Vikings held them to 3-of-17 shooting in the second quarter.
 
The other aspect the Vikings promised before the start of the season was more diversified scoring. A season ago, the Vikings were an outstanding three-point shooting team, but were in trouble if that aspect of their scoring wasn't firing. Thursday night, however, the Vikings' first six points all came from passes into Ogele down low.
 
By halftime, Ogele had scored 18 of the Vikings' 41 points while the Vikings were outscoring the Aggies 26-to-12 in the paint.
 
Still, the Vikings had to finish off the Aggies. Morales hit a three-pointer to open the second half, extending the Vikings' lead to 24 points, but that'd be as high as the Vikings' lead would climb. A 12-0 UC Davis run a few moments later saw the Aggies get back within eight, and the game would hover around that score line for the next several minutes.
 
A bucket for Mia 'Uhila off a pass from Cinco McCartney saw the Vikings eventually go back up by 10 at 63-53 with 3:51 remaining in the fourth quarter. But the Aggies would score nine of the next 12 from there to get back within four with 52.4 seconds remaining.
 
The Aggies opted not to foul, which in hindsight proved to be a mistake because it allowed the Vikings to run the shot clock all the way down before finding Morales for a dagger three with 24 seconds remaining. Morales' three put the Vikings back up by three possessions, and she'd tack on another two points from the free throw line after an Aggie miss.
 
Morales scored 17 of her 21 points after halftime, including nine points in the final quarter.
 
Ogele finished with a game-high 24 points on 12-of-14 shooting, numbers that also represented career bests for the Viking junior. Additionally, Ogele led all players with 11 rebounds in the game, giving her just the third double-double of her Viking career.
 
"Rhema has put in the work and it showed tonight," Gregg said of Ogele.
 
'Uhila also went into double figures while doing a little bit of everything for the Vikings. She finished with 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field while adding eight rebounds, five assists and four steals.
 
Alaya Fitzgerald chipped in eight points, three assists, two steals and two blocks while leading all players with a plus/minus of +17 Thursday.
 
The Vikings have another road test at San Diego Saturday before returning to Viking Pavilion for their home opener Tuesday against Warner Pacific. The Toreros were a WNIT Super 16 team last season when they went 19-14 overall and 11-7 within the West Coast Conference.
 
But the Vikings passed one road test already with their win at UC Davis Thursday. And just like that kid forced to sit the first five minutes of recess, they have lots of pent-up energy left in the tank.
 
Game Notes: The Vikings improved to 12-5 all time against the Aggies with Thursday's win…The Vikings have won six straight season openers…Their last loss in a season opener came on Nov. 11, 2017, in a road game at CSUN…The record for most makes without a miss by a PSU player in a single game is seven, so Ogele was in range of breaking that record when she started the game 9-for-9 from the field.
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