PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland State head women's basketball coach Chelsey Gregg asked her team ahead of Thursday's meeting with Idaho State to play with a sense of urgency. No one in attendance at Viking Pavilion would argue that the Vikings showed anything but that even as they dropped a heartbreaking 89-80 loss in double overtime to the Bengals.
 
Already down three players, the Vikings (4-19, 1-13 Big Sky) lost a fourth ahead of Thursday's game, then were forced to play without Rhema Ogele for all but 12 minutes of a 50-minute game due to foul trouble.
 
Despite those absences, the Vikings either set or tied their conference season highs for points (80), field goal percentage (.474) and three-pointers made (9). Additionally, four different Vikings went into double figures for only the second time this season between Alaya Fitzgerald (18 points), Kyleigh Brown (17), Lana Wenger (16) and Laynee Torres-Kahapea (14).
 
"I'm proud of the effort our players gave tonight. We battled. It's heartbreaking to not get the win. We just didn't do enough to close it out. But I can't fault our players' effort at all," Gregg said after the game.
 
The Vikings appeared poised to close out the win in regulation when Wenger hit a three-pointer with 1:51 remaining that gave the Vikings a five-point lead at 65-60. The Bengals (10-15, 5-9 Big Sky) answered with a bucket on their next possession, then got a stop on the other end before hitting a second-chance three-pointer that tied the game at 65-all with 35 seconds remaining.
 
The Vikings bled the clock before Brown drove for a contested six-footer that missed off the rim. Idaho State got the rebound with about five seconds remaining, opted not to call a timeout, and missed on a low-chance jumper from the baseline.
 
The Bengals used the momentum of their late comeback to score the first six points of the first overtime period to lead 71-65. Wenger led the Vikings back, scoring five points in an 8-0 run that gave the Vikings the lead at 73-71 with 1:35 remaining. The Bengals scored back-to-back buckets – the second on another second-chance opportunity – to lead 75-73. Fitzgerald drove to the basket to tie it at 75-all with 32 seconds left. Idaho State then used the entire shot clock but didn't get a quality look as the Vikings forced a second overtime period.
 
Things fell apart for the Vikings from there, however. The Bengals again started hot, scoring 12 of the first 13 points in the second overtime to essentially put the game away. The Vikings didn't make a field goal until Wenger hit a trailing three with less than 30 seconds remaining. By then, the Bengals led 87-79 lead and they iced the game from the free-throw line.
 
Offensive rebounds hurt the Vikings down the stretch. The Bengals recorded six offensive rebounds between both overtime periods, which led to an 8-0 advantage in second-chance points within overtime.
 
The Vikings had done a better job against the Bengals on the glass through the first three quarters of the game. After the Vikings out-rebounded the Bengals 9-to-6 in the third quarter, the rebounding margin was just minus-1 against an Idaho State team that out-rebounded the Vikings 46-to-18 (-28) in their first meeting on Jan. 25.
 
And that was all without Ogele in the game. The Vikings' leading rebounder picked up a technical foul with just over two minutes off the clock in the first quarter. She picked up a second foul a few minutes later, then a third with more than six minutes remaining in the second quarter. She played less than four minutes in the second half.
 
The early technical, coupled with the player absences, could have seen the Vikings fold early. Instead, they responded with a their highest-scoring first quarter within Big Sky play, as they scored 20 points in the opening quarter. Torres-Kahapea accounted for eight of those 20 points behind a pair of first-quarter three-pointers.
 
Fitzgerald hit her first three-pointer less than a minute into the second quarter to give the Vikings a 23-18 lead. An 8-1 ISU run put the Bengals back in front, a lead they'd keep into halftime.
 
The Vikings got hot again from three-point range in the third quarter, as Brown hit two shots from distances while Fitzgerald added another. Those two combined for 15 of the Vikings' 19 points in the third quarter as the Vikings outscored the Bengals 19-12 in the period.
 
The Vikings tied their largest lead of the game early in the fourth quarter when Torres-Kahapea hit a pair of free throws to make it 52-46. The Bengals came back to tie it, but the Vikings edged ahead again when Fitzgerald dropped a pretty pass to Courtney Turner on a pick-and-roll that made it 62-60 with 2:49 remaining. Turner then got a big defensive rebound on the Bengals' next possession. Wenger rewarded the effort with a baseline three-pointer to push the Vikings' lead to five with 1:51 remaining.
 
That kickstarted a strong finish to the game from Wenger. Out of her 16 points, 12 came over the final two minutes of regulation and overtime.
 
Turner, meanwhile, put in a strong shift in place of Ogele for much of the game. She recorded a season-high eight points while adding five rebounds and three steals.
 
All of the Vikings' efforts deserved the reward of a win Thursday. Instead, they'll look to secure one Saturday when they host Weber State 1 p.m.
 
Game Notes: The Vikings fell to 26-46 all-time against the Bengals with the loss…Thursday's game was the Vikings' first double overtime game since an 87-85 win over Oregon on Nov. 15, 2012…It was just the third double overtime game in the past 25 years of the program…The Vikings' recorded 11 steals on 15 ISU turnovers Thursday, with their 11 steals tying their second-highest total of the season.
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