PORTLAND, Ore. — The passing lanes at the Chiles Center looked a lot like the Portland traffic lanes Friday night. Clogged. At least for the Portland State women's basketball team as the Vikings dropped a 71-46 game to cross-town rival University of Portland.
 
The Pilots (11-0) suffocated the Viking offense throughout the game, forcing the Vikings (3-5) into a season-high 34 turnovers. That was 12 more than the Vikings have had in any other game this season and the most since the Vikings had 42 in a neutral-site game against Oklahoma on Dec. 21, 2016. The Pilots also held the Vikings to 29.2 percent (14-of-48) shooting from the field, their second-lowest mark of the season.
 
"The key to the game was taking care of the ball and we didn't do that," Portland State head coach Chelsey Gregg said matter-of-factly after the game. "Early in the year, we took care of the ball and that was something that we prided ourselves on. Since then, we've fallen back. So as a staff, we've got to find ways to get our kids confident and get that swagger back so we can put them confidently in the right positions."
 
The turnovers set the tone early Friday. The Pilots scored 17 of their 20 first-quarter points off the Vikings' 14 turnovers in the period. The Vikings went the last four minutes of the first quarter without a bucket while committing seven turnovers during that span. The Pilots led 20-6 after the opening period and never led by less than that margin the rest of the way.
 
The Pilots were always going to be the toughest test yet for the Vikings. They remain undefeated after Friday's game, while all 11 of their victories have come by double digits. Additionally, how the Pilots won didn't come as a shock. They went into the game leading the West Coast Conference and ranked in the top 25 nationally for steals per game, turnovers forced per game and turnover margin. Their turnover margin was +7.50, and they surpassed that Friday when they were +14 (34-to-20) against the Vikings.
 
"We've got to continue to fight. And I thought at times that we did, but we can't pick and choose when we want to fight. We have to have that no matter what's the case. That's life. You might not know the endgame, but it doesn't matter, we've got to make that choice anyways to work," Gregg said.
 
The Viking defense had its moments Friday. The Vikings held the Pilots to 10 points below their season average (81.1). The Pilots also came into the game shooting a WCC-best 48.2 percent from the field as a team, but the Vikings held them to 43.3 percent (26-of-60) Friday.
 
Strong rebounding helped the Vikings' defensive effort. The Vikings out-rebounded the Pilots 39-to-30 Friday, which included an 18-to-11 advantage on the offensive glass. The 18 offensive rebounds were a season high for the Vikings, as was the Vikings' +9 rebounding margin.
 
But despite that rebounding advantage, the Pilots still outscored the Vikings 13-11 in second-chance points. That was a tribute to the Pilots' defensive effort, which didn't give up an easy bucket when the Vikings got an offensive rebound.
 
The best offense for the Vikings came from the free throw line. The Vikings shot 21 free throws Friday, with their 16 makes representing close to 35 percent of their scoring total.
 
Jamia Carter scored six of her eight points from the line, while four other Vikings hit at least two shots from the charity stripe. Alaya Fitzgerald was one of those other four as she led the Vikings with 11 points to go with five rebounds. Rhema Ogele grabbed a game-high nine rebounds to go with four points. Sofía Llanos chipped in seven points, six rebounds and four steals while playing a career-high 34 minutes.
 
Kyleigh Brown, who had scored in double figures in three straight games, was held to just two points. She only played just over 10 minutes, however, after getting hit in the head early and then being held out precautionarily.
 
That didn't help the Vikings' effort to limit their turnovers. The Vikings had started the season with three options at point guard in Brown, Taylor Moffat and Laynee Torres-Kahapea. The Vikings lost Moffat, who started their first seven games, last Saturday against Denver, then lost Brown during Friday's game. That left the Vikings with only one primary ball handler (Torres-Kahapea) against an already potent Portland defense.
 
The team will now look to regroup ahead of their non-conference finale next Friday when they host Air Force at 1 p.m. on Dec. 20.
 
"We've got to get back to neutral thinking because I don't think [tonight's performance] is the team that we are," Gregg said. "We'll look at it. I think I know what I saw, but we'll go back and watch film again and adjust the things that need to improve. On face value, it's turnovers, but I also think there's some other things as well.
 
"We'll continue working. There's really no choice there. We've got to continue to work on ourselves and get better."
 
Game Notes: The Vikings fell to 26-32 all-time against the Pilots with Friday's loss…The Pilots have won the last four games in the intra-city series…After averaging 14.0 turnovers per game through their first five games of the season, the Vikings are now averaging 24.0 over their last three games.
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