SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Portland State women's basketball erased a nine-point halftime deficit against Sacramento State to tie Saturday afternoon's game at 54-54 with 4:58 remaining. But the Hornets made enough plays down the stretch to stay in front and eke out a 68-64 victory over the Vikings at Hornet Pavilion.
 
The Vikings (5-10, 1-2) cut it to a three-point game entering the fourth quarter with one of their better third quarters of the season. The Vikings outscored the Hornets 18-12 while outshooting them .667-to-.267 in the period. Additionally, the Vikings cleaned up their turnovers, winning the third quarter by a +2 margin when they were minus-8 in the first half against the Hornets (8-8, 2-1).
 
"We had to be better in the third quarter because we gave up way too many points in the first half," Portland State head coach Karlie Burris said after the game. "At halftime we had to reevaluate our effort and our attention to detail on the scout. We switched up some things schematically, which led to them only scoring 12 points in the third quarter."
 
Leading scorer Kyleigh Brown was held to just one point on 0-for-2 shooting in the first half, her lowest scoring half of the season. Brown came alive in the second half, however, scoring 17 of her team-high 18 points after halftime when she was 6-for-7 from the field.
 
Brown's first field goal didn't come until 4:13 remained in the third quarter. Once it came, though, the Vikings started to rally behind their sophomore guard. Brown converted the first of two three-point plays in the second half to cut the deficit to five with 1:10 remaining in the third. The second then came with 5:36 remaining in the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to two.
 
After a defensive stop, Brown hit a free-throw line jumper to tie the game at 54-54 with 4:56 remaining.
 
"We were trying to look for ways, once the offense was in front of us, to try and get her some more touches," Burris said of Brown's second half.
 
The Hornets pushed back into the lead with a pair of three-pointers from Jaety Mandaquit. Hannah Chicken answered with a three-pointer of her own to cut it to a one-point game with 2:20 remaining.
 
Offensive rebounds and turnovers hurt the Vikings down the stretch, however. The Hornets converted on their third chance of the possession following Chicken's three-pointer. A turnover on the Vikings' next possession gave the ball back to the Hornets, who stretched their lead to five with a driving layup from preseason Big Sky MVP Benthe Versteeg.
 
Another turnover gave the ball back to the Hornets with 33 seconds remaining, and all the Hornets had to do from there was make their free throws to ice the game.
 
The Vikings finished minus-10 in the turnover battle (19-to-9), which led to a critical five-point advantage for the Hornets (21-16) in a close game.
 
"Way too many turnovers," Burris said in looking at the box score. "Shot selection is something we're going to continue to talk about because every possession matters. I referenced the 19 turnovers in the locker room afterwards because it hurts when you give them 19 more shot attempts than you. It's hard to win a basketball game that way. That's for sure something we're going to have to clean up."
 
The Hornets grabbed seven more offensive rebounds than the Vikings, though Portland State still outscored the Hornets 18-17 in second-chance points. That was a strength of the Vikings' early when Brown was quiet. Ajae Yoakum provided much of that early strength while finishing with eight points and 12 rebounds (five offensive) in the game.
 
The Vikings finished level with the Hornets, 40-to-40, on the glass overall Saturday.
 
Cici Ellington added 13 points on 6-for-9 shooting to go with five rebounds, two assists and two steals.
 
Chicken also went into double figures with 11 points to go with eight rebounds.
 
Freshman Sophie Buzzard had seven of the Vikings' first 11 points in the game. She finished with nine points to go with three rebounds, two steals and two blocks.
 
The Vikings outshot the Hornets .439-to-.370 despite the loss. The 43.9 percent shooting represents the Vikings' third-highest mark of the season. The Viking defense, meanwhile, held the Hornets to 32.3 percent (10-for-31) shooting in the second half.
 
The Vikings will continue on the road next week, as they play at Northern Colorado (Thursday, 5 p.m. PT) and Northern Arizona (Saturday, 1 p.m. PT).  
 
A second half like the Vikings played Saturday against the Hornets will put them in contention in either game.
 
GAME NOTES:

• The Vikings fell to 27-35 all-time against the Hornets with Saturday's loss.
• The Vikings haven't won a Big Sky road game since Feb. 4, 2023. Saturday marked their 22nd straight conference road loss.
• Brown's streak of double-digit scoring games was in threat at halftime, but she extended it to 21 straight games – the longest such streak in the past 20 seasons at Portland State – with her 18 points Saturday.
• Ellington needs 12 points to reach 1,000 in her collegiate career.

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