PORTLAND, Ore. — Petition to make the first quarter part of the warm-up.
 
Take out the first quarter of Saturday's game between Portland State and Montana, and the Vikings win by four. But a strong opening quarter for the Lady Griz held up as they maintained a lead throughout in a 76-65 victory over the Vikings at Viking Pavilion.
 
The Lady Griz (19-7, 11-4) shot 76.5 percent (13-of-17) in the opening quarter while building a 33-18 advantage. But take that out and the Vikings (7-21, 2-14) win 47-43 while outshooting the Lady Griz .395-to-.289.
 
Of course, those aren't the rules. The first quarter counts, and the Vikings never got closer than eight points down over the final three quarters of the game.
 
"We have to be better in the first quarter," Portland State head coach Chelsey Gregg said after the game. "That's something that we need to continue to be better at. But coming off a hard-fought battle Thursday [against Montana State, a 60-55 PSU win], we did a lot of things well against a really good team.
 
"We didn't go 1-0 today, and that's kind of been our focus. We didn't win the day. When we get back to practice next week, how are we going to win that day and continue to get better?"
 
Esmeralda Morales tried to lead the Vikings back in Thursday's game behind a season-high 31 points. Sixteen of Morales' 31 points came in the fourth quarter when she accounted for all but two points for the Vikings. The 31 points were one shy of Morales' career high, which she set with 32 points in her very first game as a Viking back on Nov. 9, 2021, against Warner Pacific.
 
Morales has now scored 20 or more points in three straight games, the longest such streak of her career. She's averaging 24.3 points per game during the team's last three games, while shooting 42.3 percent (11-of-26) from beyond the arc.
 
Morales had five three-pointers Saturday, two of which came in the fourth quarter when she was 5-of-7 from the field. Morales also had a big fourth quarter Thursday night in the Vikings' win over Montana State, scoring 12 of the team's 18 points while leading the Vikings back to a 60-55 victory.
 
Saturday, she wasn't quite able to do the same. She opened the final quarter with five straight points, hitting a triple and then driving through contact for a baseline layup that made it 61-52 with 7:10 remaining.
 
But the Lady Griz eventually pushed it back to a 15-point lead at 71-56 with less than four minutes to go. The Vikings made another run to get back within nine points, but that was with only 33 seconds remaining on the clock, leaving the Vikings out of time.
 
Besides Morales, Rhema Ogele scored in double figures with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting to go with six rebounds and four steals. Fellow post Lana Wenger contributed eight points, five rebounds and three assists. Guard Mia 'Uhila also threw her weight around in the paint while collecting six points, eight rebounds and four assists.
 
Their play in the paint kept the Lady Griz from running away with the game. The Vikings outscored the Lady Griz 20-18 in the paint while finishing only minus-4 on the glass (36-to-32) against one of the top rebounding teams in the Big Sky Conference in Montana. The minus-4 margin might seem like a big win for the Vikings, but Montana out-rebounded the Vikings 51-to-26 the last time the teams played each other in Missoula on Jan. 25 earlier this season.
 
The Vikings also nearly matched the Lady Griz from three-point range, no small feat considering Montana came into the game leading the nation with 11.1 three-pointers made per game. They were right on their average with 12 makes on 38.7 percent shooting from deep. The Vikings, however, answered with 10 makes on 38.5 percent shooting themselves.
 
Morales accounted for five of those 10 makes, but four other players hit at least one shot from the outside.
 
Three-point shooting has been a key part of the Vikings' recent turnaround. After the Vikings shot just 24.5 percent while averaging 5.4 makes per game during their 15-game losing streak, they've responded by shooting 40.2 percent and averaging 8.6 makes per game over their last five games.
 
"It's nice to see a number of people stepping up and hitting big shots for us," Gregg said of the team's recent success from three-point range. "We don't want to live and die by the three, but it definitely helps extend the defense. Now our attacks are more open. Now we can get the ball inside a little bit more. They aren't able to double down as much. So, it changes the way you can play when you make shots from the outside. It's definitely been a key to our recent success."
 
The three-point shooting will be a key piece for the Vikings if they are to make another March run. A season ago, the Vikings tied a program record with 15 three-pointers in their quarterfinal upset of Montana State at the Big Sky tournament.
 
The Vikings didn't get the upset Saturday, but there wasn't anything in the final three quarters of the game to deter anyone from thinking more upsets could be in the future.
 
Game Notes: The Vikings fell to 22-56 all-time against the Lady Griz following Saturday's loss…Morales tied former teammate Jada Lewis for third in career three-pointers made, hitting her 206th three-pointer during the fourth quarter of the game…Morales has 82 three-pointers this season, seven short of Michele Hughes' single-season school record of 89 from the 1989-90 season.
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