PORTLAND, Ore. — New Portland State head women's basketball coach
Karlie Burris said she'd have her Vikings pick up the pace this season. It took her one exhibition – not even the official start of the season – to accomplish that as the Vikings beat Warner Pacific 88-51 Thursday at Viking Pavilion.
If it had been a counting game, the 88 points would have marked the Vikings' most in a game since they beat Sacramento State 91-68 on March 6, 2020. Five and a half years ago. What's more, the Vikings scored 20+ points in three of the four quarters Thursday. A year ago, the Vikings had 11 20-point quarters across the whole season.
While Burris was quick to say that the Vikings still have room for growth – they only dressed nine out of 14 players Thursday, for one – it was an encouraging first look at this year's team for Viking fans.
"I was just excited to play against people other than us," Burris said after the game. "I think we got the jitters out. I thought we played really well in the first quarter. I thought it was our best quarter of the four. We executed and I thought we trusted what we were trying to do, which was to try and run. If we can put 26 points up a quarter, I think we're going to be in good shape.
"The funny thing is, I thought we left a lot of points out there. There were times where we didn't execute to the standard that we want to set. So that's exciting, feeling like we left points out there scoring 88. We still need to clean up stuff. It's super early, but for the most part, we're trying to play fast and score."
The Vikings set that tone early. Freshman
Sophie Buzzard had back-to-back steals lead to fast-break layups to put the Vikings up 11-2 five minutes into the game. The two steals came as part of a first quarter in which the Vikings outscored the Knights 11-0 in points off turnovers. The Vikings had five steals on five Warner Pacific turnovers in the opening 10 minutes without committing a turnover themselves.
That continued over the rest of the game, as the Vikings won the turnover battle 17-6, which led to a 25-8 advantage in points off turnovers.
"We ended with six [turnovers] on the night, which is great. Again, that's a really good number for us. They threw a couple different zones at us, they threw a press at us. I was happy that we were able to break that and were prepared for that. This early, it's nice to be in a good spot with that, but we still have a lot to learn."
The Vikings stretched their lead with a 14-2 run to finish the first half in which five different players scored. That extended into a 10-2 start to the second half, giving the Vikings a 58-24 advantage with 7:04 remaining in the third quarter.
The result was hardly in doubt from there, though the fourth quarter still featured a 15-0 run for the Vikings in which
Kyleigh Brown scored the last eight points in a row. That came after
Ajae Yoakum opened the fourth quarter with 10 straight points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field.
Yoakum – the Portland native and Arizona transfer – led the Vikings with 26 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the field. All while only playing 23 minutes.
Alani Encinas, who earned the start Thursday, added 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting, including 3-of-10 from three-point range. To put that in perspective, Encinas only has six career points through her first three years at Portland State, meaning she nearly tripled that total in Thursday's exhibition alone.
"I thought Lani stepped up. We need a three-point threat and she is that. Three for ten isn't horrible. I think she can improve upon that. But I like her length on the defensive end as well. She was executing the scouting report. But if she can stretch the floor and open stuff up for Ajae or
Katelyn Best or Hannah [Chicken], we need that. We're going to continue to need her to build, but really proud of her response for getting the start tonight."
Buzzard and Brown scored 14 points each for the Vikings. Junior
Laynee Torres-Kahapea was on triple-double watch before finishing with eight points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Torres-Kahapea's nine rebounds and eight assists both would have been new career highs for the junior, if it had been a counting game.
The rebounding from Torres-Kahapea helped the Vikings pick up the pace Thursday, as they outscored the Knights 13-3 in fast-break points.
"Ideally, we want our ball handlers rebounding the basketball for that reason. You can initiate the break. I didn't even realize she had nine boards. That's big time. If she can do that every night for us, or at least five or six, it's just helpful. There's no outlet. We're just trying to advance the ball up the floor," Burris said of Torres-Kahapea's rebounding.
Yoakum's dominance in the paint meant the Vikings also outscored the Knights 52-32 in the paint. The 52 points in the paint were 14 more than the Vikings had in any game last season.
Hannah Chicken contributed to that alongside Yoakum with seven points and five rebounds.
The success at the basket meant the Vikings shot 50.7 percent (34-of-67) from the field. Again, that beat the Vikings' best mark from last season when their season high was 49.1 percent against Seattle U on Nov. 16, 2024.
The challenge for the Vikings will now be to do it in a counting game. They'll fly out to Hawaii for a 9 p.m. PT / 7 p.m. HT tipoff Tuesday with that in mind.
It's normally a five-and-a-half-hour flight between Portland and Honolulu. But considering Burris' early success speeding up the game for the Vikings, maybe they'll get there faster.
