SEATTLE, Wash. — Pair together your best offensive performance of the early season with your best defensive performance and good things are going to happen. The Portland State women's basketball team did that Saturday, as the Vikings broke through for their first win of the season with a 67-57 road victory at Seattle U.
 
The Vikings (1-2) shot season highs from the field (49.1 percent) and from three-point range (42.9 percent) while holding the Redhawks (0-3) to an opponent season low on the other end (35.1 percent). What's more, the Vikings out-rebounded an opponent for the first time this season, beating the Redhawks 35-to-28 on the glass.
 
Perhaps most encouragingly of all, it was a team effort from the Vikings who had six different players score eight or more points while four went into double figures. The Vikings haven't had six players score in double figures since 2019, and they were only a couple of buckets away from that Saturday.

"Great time win," Portland State head coach Chelsey Gregg said after the game. "I loved how we shared the basketball and we stepped up and made shots. Great defensive effort and collective rebounding. We were able to switch it up and trust each other to do our jobs and finish with a rebound."
 
Alaya Fitzgerald led the balanced scoring with 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from three-point range. Her biggest sequence came early in the third quarter when she hit back-to-back three-pointers out of halftime to stretch the Vikings' lead to 42-31. That was after she capped a 7-0 run for the Vikings heading into the break that turned a 31-29 deficit into a 36-31 halftime lead.
 
The Redhawks never got closer than eight points for the rest of the night, as the Vikings led by double digits for all but a few moments in the second half.
 
The Viking defense didn't allow the Redhawks to score at all for the first five and a half minutes of the fourth quarter, as they snuffed out any chance at a comeback.

"Our message to the team before the game was to outwork them," Gregg said. "Focus on one possession at a time, not trying to get ahead of ourselves by only focusing solely on the outcome. Gotta be process-driven and we're at our best when we play hard and together."
 
Fitzgerald also led the Vikings with five assists, her third straight game leading the Vikings in the category to start the season. The Vikings assisted on 15 of 26 field goals as a team. Laynee Torres Kahapea chipped in four while Kyleigh Brown and Taylor Moffat added three and two, respectively.
 
Brown and Moffat were part of the second wave of scoring that the Vikings got Saturday that they hadn't in their first two games of the season. Fitzgerald, Torres-Kahapea and Lana Wenger all went into double figures in the Vikings' loss at San Francisco, but no other Viking had more than six points in that one.
 
Saturday, that wasn't an issue. While Fitzgerald (14), Wenger (12) and Torres-Kahapea (10) all went into double figures again, the Redhawks couldn't just focus on them as Rhema Ogele added 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting while Brown and Moffat scored nine and eight points, respectively.
 
Additionally, Ogele and Moffat led the Vikings to their win on the glass. Ogele grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds to give the senior her first double-double of the season. Moffat snagged seven rebounds, while Wenger collected five.
 
Things felt different for the Vikings from the tip Saturday. They opened the game by making nine of their first 13 shots while building a 23-9 lead. The start included a 13-0 run that featured three-pointers from Wenger, Torres-Kahapea and Fitzgerald.
 
The Redhawks responded with an 18-3 run to take a 27-26 lead in the second quarter, but the Vikings reasserted themselves with their 7-0 spurt to end the half. Fitzgerald extended that run to 13-0 with her back-to-back three-pointers to open the third quarter, and the march to victory was on from there for the Vikings.
 
Among the seasonal best performances for the Vikings, they also finished with a season-high nine makes from three-point range. Fitzgerald's four tied a career high and led the way for the Vikings. Wenger hit two on 2-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc, while Torres-Kahapea, Brown and Moffat all added one each.
 
The Vikings have eight days off before their next game now. They'll return home for their next three games, starting with a game against Cal State Fullerton at 1 p.m. on Nov. 24.
 
Game Notes: The Vikings leveled their all-time series with Seattle U, 9-9, with Saturday's win…They've won four in a row against the Redhawks, including wins in each of the last three seasons…The Vikings out-scored an opponent in the paint for the first time this season, as they outscored the Redhawks 28-20…They've outscored all three opponents so far this season in points off turnovers after outscoring the Redhawks 13-10.
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