BOULDER, Colo. — A stiff Colorado defense held the Portland State women's basketball team at bay Sunday, as the Buffaloes beat the Vikings 77-45 at the CU Events Center.
 
The Buffaloes (2-1), coming off a close loss at No. 22 Louisville Wednesday, forced 27 turnovers out of the Vikings. The Vikings (1-2) countered by out-rebounding the Buffaloes 16-to-10 in the first half, but Colorado responded in the second half, out-rebounding the Vikings 29-to-8 after the break.
 
Limiting the Vikings to one shot meant the Buffaloes held Portland State to just 28.6 percent (6-of-21) shooting in the second half.
 
"Like every game, we're hoping to be the team that works the hardest. I liked our effort today. We knew what we were up against in a great Colorado team that was within one or two possessions against a top 25 team in Louisville. But we also didn't want to back down," Portland State head coach Karlie Burris said of her team's approach Sunday.
 
"Colorado's a team that puts on a lot of defensive pressure and turns people over. That's their calling card. That's what they do. So, a point of emphasis for us was taking care of the basketball. Clearly, we didn't do a good enough job doing that. We did a decent job in the first quarter, but then they went into that 2-3 zone and got us off what we were trying to do, and we coughed the ball up a little too much. We're going to go back and look at the film and see what we can do better."
 
The Buffaloes forced the Vikings into a half-court offense throughout Sunday's game. That's against the way the Vikings want to play, as Burris looks to speed up the Vikings in her first year at the helm. But Colorado held the Vikings to just 44 shots Sunday, 11 fewer than they had in either of their first two games of the season. The Buffaloes outscored the Vikings 14-0 in the fast break, as a result.
 
"Personally, I think we just kind of ran out of gas a little bit. I was proud of our execution to start the third quarter given what we were given in the half-court. No, it's not what we normally want to do, but we're going to hang our hat on being able to execute in the half-court if our transition gets taken away. I felt we saw spurts of that, so I'm not trying to get too high or too low, but rather just correct things that we haven't been able to execute," Burris said.
 
Leading scorer Kyleigh Brown handled being the focus of the Colorado defense well. She finished with 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the floor and 4-of-7 from three-point range. It's the ninth straight game in which Brown has scored in double figures going back to last year.
 
Freshman Hannah Chicken went into double figures for the first time in her career, scoring 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field.
 
Chicken gave the Vikings their lone lead in the game when a lane opened up and she drove to the hoop for a layup. That made it 9-8 with 4:13 remaining in the first quarter. It was only a 15-11 lead for the Buffs at the end of the first quarter, as the Vikings out-rebounded (8-to-6) and out-shot (.455-to-.375) the Buffaloes in the opening 10 minutes.
 
The Buffaloes opened the second quarter on a 15-3 run, however, and then never let the Vikings closer than 14 points the rest of the way.
 
Laynee Torres-Kahapea added seven points while leading the Vikings with six rebounds. She was held scoreless in the second half, however.
 
The Vikings will stay in Colorado for a game at Air Force Tuesday, when they'll play at Clune Arena at 5:30 p.m. PT / 6:30 p.m. MT.
 
"There were some good things that we can take from this game but obviously a lot to clean up," Burris said. "Tomorrow, we have practice. We're going to review the film from this game and then hopefully turn the page to Air Force. That 40 minutes of pressure is coming. Obviously, not with the same size [as Colorado], but it's coming. Air Force does a really good job. We're going to prepare with that chip on our shoulder and be ready to go."
 
Game Notes:

• Sunday's game was the first between the Vikings and Buffaloes since the 1982-83 season. The Vikings won the earlier meeting, meaning the teams are now tied, 1-1, in their all-time series.
• The Buffaloes outscored the Vikings 15-2 in second-chance points thanks to a 16-5 advantage on the offensive glass. The Buffaloes also held advantages in bench points (38-16) and points in the paint (34-16).
• The Buffaloes had 18 steals on the Vikings' 26 turnovers Sunday.
• Ajae Yoakum led the Vikings with three assists to go with four points and five rebounds in the game.

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