PORTLAND, Ore. — In a game where a two-possession lead felt like a double-digit lead, freshman Kyleigh Brown hit a dagger three-pointer with 38 seconds remaining that all but ended the game. The triple turned a five-point led into an eight-point lead, and the Portland State women's basketball team easily closed out its second straight victory from there with a 61-52 win over Cal State Fullerton Sunday at Viking Pavilion.
 
Brown's three-pointer felt like a dagger in part because the Viking defense put together its best game in nearly two years. The Vikings (2-2) held the Titans (0-6) to 28.6 percent (18-of-63) shooting from the field. That's the lowest the Vikings have held an opponent since they held Idaho to an identical 28.6 percent (16-of-56) from the floor on Jan. 7, 2023.
 
"Defensively, we did enough. I would have liked for us to keep the ball in front of us a bit more. I felt like they penetrated too much. But I continue to love how we can switch it up depending on personnel or what their lineups look like," Portland State head coach Chelsey Gregg said after the game.
 
"I thought we had a lot of resilience in this game. As much as we do have some older players on the team, everything's still new. It feels great to have found a way to win even when it wasn't pretty at times."
 
The Viking offense struggled themselves. After a second quarter in which they shot just 2-of-13 from the floor, the Vikings were under 30 percent themselves at halftime. They bounced back with a better second half in which they shot 45.5 percent (10-of-22), but still only finished with 17 made field goals while also shooting 25.0 percent (4-of-16) from three-point range.
 
The thrust of the Viking offense came from the free-throw line. More than a third of the Vikings' 61 points came from the line where they went 23-of-25 (92.0 percent).  The Vikings hadn't made that many shots from the line since going 23-of-28 against New Mexico State on Dec. 17, 2022.
 
It wasn't just one Viking marching to the line, either. Seven of the nine Vikings who played in Sunday's game hit at least one shot from the line, while four players hit more than two.
 
"That's going to be key for us," Gregg said of the team getting to the line Sunday.  "We have to continue to be aggressive. When you do that, you either make teams help and pinch the defense, or you get to the line."
 
The Titans started to get to the free throw line in the third quarter as they pushed into the lead. Out of the Titans' 15 made free throws, 10 came in the third quarter. Five of those 10 came as part of a 7-0 that saw the Titans take their first lead since it was 2-0.
 
But that's where Brown gave Viking fans a taste of what was to come. The freshman guard snapped the Titans' run with her first three-pointer, bringing the Vikings back to within one at 41-40. Alaya Fitzgerald added a three-point play in the final seconds of the third quarter to give the Vikings the lead back at 43-41. Four points from Rhema Ogele early in the fourth quarter extended it to a 10-0 run for the Vikings as they went up 47-41.
 
The Titans didn't go away. They twice cut the Vikings' lead to one in the final period, but the Vikings answered on the other end each time. Fitzgerald hit a pair of free throws the first time the Titans cut the lead to one. The second time, Brown fed Ogele for a layup at the end of the shot clock with only 2:23 remaining in the game.
 
Laynee Torres-Kahapea hit a pair of free throws on the Vikings' next possession to make it 56-51, setting the stage for Brown's dagger after that.
 
"We talked [with Brown] that if the shot clock is winding down, you have to have the mentality of 'I'm shooting the ball. The ball's going up and it's going in.' And so she did that," Gregg said of Brown.
 
Ogele led the Vikings with 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the floor to go with seven rebounds and two assists.
 
Fitzgerald scored nine of her 13 points in the second half while adding two rebounds and two assists.
 
Torres-Kahapea led the Vikings with five assists – tying her career high – while chipping in seven points and three rebounds.
 
Brown scored seven of her nine points after halftime, when she also grabbed four of her six rebounds.
 
Five different players ended up scoring at least six points for the Vikings. That was a characteristic of the Vikings' first win of the season at Seattle U, too. Six different Vikings scored at least eight points in the team's win over the Redhawks. On Sunday, the Vikings outscored the Titans 17-2 in bench points.
 
"We could go up and down the roster. I thought the bench energy was great. I thought we were engaged all week. Our scout team got us ready," Gregg said. "I've seen jumps from our team from San Francisco to Seattle to now. I like that about this team. We continue to make progress."
 
The Vikings also continued a trend of high assist percentages. The Vikings assisted on 12 of their 17 field goals, the fourth straight time to open the season that the Vikings have assisted on more than 50 percent of their field goals. To put that in context, the Vikings only hit that mark 14 times out of 31 games last season.
 
The Vikings will look to continue on the right path when they return to play Saturday with another home match against UC Davis. The game will be part of a doubleheader with the Portland State men's basketball team. The women will tip off at 2 p.m. on Nov. 30, while the men tip off against Utah Tech at 5 p.m.
 
Game Notes: The Vikings improved to 4-2 all-time against Cal State Fullerton with Sunday's win…The Vikings held Cal State Fullerton to only 5.6 percent shooting (1-of-18) from three-point range.

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