PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland State women's basketball team couldn't summon the same snow game magic Thursday that they produced last season.
 
A year ago, with the game closed to the public, the Vikings (5-12, 0-5) made up a four-point deficit with 11.6 seconds remaining to beat Montana in overtime. Thursday night, while playing another game closed to the public, the Vikings pushed Big Sky preseason favorite Northern Arizona, but ultimately fell 73-65 to the Lumberjacks (11-6, 3-1) at Viking Pavilion.
 
The Vikings certainly won't be satisfied with the loss, but it did come with a lot of key improvements. The Vikings outscored NAU 12-9 off turnovers, marking the first time the Vikings had outscored their opponent off turnovers in their last 10 games. Additionally, the Vikings outscored the Lumberjacks 36-28 in the paint, marking only the third time all season that the Vikings have won that battle. Those two improvements meant the Vikings cracked 60 points offensively for the first time in their last eight games.
 
So, not a win. But a lot better than a week ago when the Vikings lost by 36 at Idaho State and Weber State.
 
"Signs of life. We were fighting tonight. That's encouraging. We can work with that," Portland State head coach Chelsey Gregg said afterwards. "I felt like we started trusting each other again. Shots didn't always fall, but I thought we did a nice job attacking and getting to the rim."
 
Mia 'Uhila and Alaya Fitzgerald led the more aggressive attitude from the Vikings against the Lumberjacks. 'Uhila, in particular, made a number of strong drives to the hoop, resulting in one of her best games as a Viking. 'Uhila recorded the first double-double of her career with 19 points to go with a career-high 10 rebounds and three assists. 'Uhila shot a career-best 8-of-10 (.800) from the floor, with seven of her eight field goals coming inside the paint.
 
Fitzgerald, meanwhile, scored 10 of her 15 points after halftime, while hitting three of the Vikings' five three-pointers in the game.
 
"I think it's a confidence thing," Gregg said of the aggressive mindset she saw from her players Thursday. "We've been talking with them and saying there's no reason for us not to be confident. They've put in the work, and they've got experience. You have to have the mentality that it doesn't matter who you're lined up against, you can score at any time."
 
'Uhila and Fitzgerald each hit an early triple to give the Vikings an 8-3 lead out of the gates. NAU outscored the Vikings 18-6 over the rest of the first quarter, and the Lumberjacks maintained the lead the rest of the way.
 
The Vikings never let the Lumberjacks extend the lead by too much, however. After NAU took a seven-point lead at 21-14, the Vikings opened the second quarter with back-to-back buckets from Fitzgerald and Esmeralda Morales to get back within three.
 
The Lumberjacks took their first double-digit lead at 54-44 with just over a minute left in the third quarter, only to see the Vikings score seven straight to again get back within three. Fitzgerald capped the run with a three-point play at the start of the fourth quarter to make it 54-51 with 9:38 remaining.
 
But the Lumberjacks answered with a definitive 17-5 run that put the game to bed with NAU leading 71-56 with 3:40 remaining.
 
Outside of 'Uhila and Fitzgerald, Morales also went into double figures with 11 points to go with season highs for assists (6) and steals (5). Morales didn't hit double figures until 57.5 seconds remained in the game, extending her run of double-digit scoring games to 17.
 
The balanced scoring was another mark of improvement for the Vikings. They hadn't had three players score in double figures in the same game since facing Eastern Washington on Dec. 28. What's more, the Vikings also got seven points out of Lana Wenger, six points out of Joy Haltom and then four and three from Rhema Ogele and Laynee Torres-Kahapea.
 
"I don't really love moral victories, but we've also got to take the wins where we can get them. It's not a 'W' in the win column, but from what we saw last Thursday and Saturday to what we saw tonight, I'm really proud of the team for the way they bounced back," Gregg said.
 
"We've got to continue to get better and learn from this. But we know what's in us."
 
Gregg won't mind a moral victory against NAU if it precedes an actual victory Saturday when the Vikings host Northern Colorado at 2 p.m. Thursday's improvements will only benefit the Vikings against the Bears. As long as the Vikings can maintain them.
 
"We just can't have a letdown [now]," Gregg said. "We have to be able to keep moving forward and keep getting better. Nobody's satisfied, nobody likes the loss, but we've got to look at the things we did well and the positives and take those into Saturday."
 
Game Notes: The Vikings still lead the all-time series between them and the Lumberjacks, 32-26, despite Thursday's loss…The Lumberjacks made 10 more free throws than the Vikings Thursday, going 22-of-27 from the line compared to 12-of-16 for the Vikings…After two of their last four opponents had shot 60 percent or better against them, the Vikings held NAU to 42.3 percent shooting Thursday.
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