PORTLAND, Ore. — A 13-2 run near the end of the first half gave the Portland State women's basketball some life Saturday afternoon against Idaho. But a third quarter in which the Vandals outscored the Vikings 31-13 proved the difference in an 84-66 Idaho victory at Viking Pavilion.
The Vikings (5-14, 1-6) were better in some areas than they were Thursday. Idaho (15-5, 6-1) still finished with more possessions than the Vikings, but it was a difference of only five field goal attempts Saturday whereas it was 19 Thursday. Idaho also won the rebounding battle (46-to-34), but the minus-12 margin was better than the minus-31 the Vikings gave up to the Eagles.
"I felt like we had better energy coming into today. It's hard to prep with that one day in between. They do a really good job scoring the basketball and pushing the pace and that first quarter we couldn't catch up. I thought we did a good job in the second quarter, switching up our defense, but then they just kind of blew it open [in the third quarter]," Portland State head coach
Karlie Burris said afterwards.
"The rebounding battle was still lopsided, but I was proud of our intention to try and make contact with their two big players. They still came up with 13 offensive rebounds but not as many second-chance points as the other night. For us, it's just putting four quarters together. We're still a work in progress."
The Vandals separated themselves behind their three-point shooting. They scored 15 of their 31 third-quarter points from three-point range, including a pair early in the period that shifted the momentum out of halftime. The Vikings, meanwhile, missed their first nine shots from beyond the arc, and while
Hannah Chicken got hot – going 4-for-4 from three-point range – the rest of the team finished the game 1-for-20 from deep.
The three-point shooting fueled an Idaho offense that became the fourth straight team to score 80+ points against the Vikings. The Vandals posted the best field goal percentage (.456) by a Big Sky opponent against the Vikings. They were 12-for-15 (.800) from the field in the third quarter alone, including 5-for-6 (.833) from three-point range.
"A lot still needs to click [defensively]. What we say every day is it starts on the defensive end. We need our team to start buying into that," Burris said.
"We knew [Kyra] Gardner was a good player. We didn't think [Hope] Hassmann was going to shoot the ball as well as she did tonight [5-for-9 from three-point range] but she did. It's just hard on those nights, but that's where we're talking about digging deep and how are we going to band together and get some stops."
The first of Chicken's four three-pointers started the Vikings' 13-2 run towards the end of the second quarter. She added a second with 1:03 remaining in the first half, while
Sophie Buzzard followed with one of two at the free throw line to get the Vikings back within five at 40-35.
But the Vandals got a bucket to make it a seven-point game at halftime, then hit the gas in the third quarter.
Chicken finished with 17 points on 5-for-7 shooting from the field to go with three rebounds and five assists. She's now 10-for-13 from three-point range since breaking out from beyond the arc during the Vikings' game against Idaho State on Jan. 3. She was 3-for-11 from deep before then.
"We haven't really harped on it a whole lot. We've kind of just let her naturally play her game," Burris said of Chicken's emergence from three-point range. "If she can do that, then that helps a ton."
Kyleigh Brown also tried to will the Vikings back into the game. She had two three-point plays in the first quarter alone, while she added a third in the second half. Brown finished with 23 points on 9-for-18 shooting from the field to go with two rebounds and three assists.
Brown's 23 points followed 25 against Eastern Washington Thursday, giving her two straight 20-point games and eight total this season. She's now scored in double figures in 25 straight games going back to last season, the longest such streak over the last 20 seasons at Portland State.
"You can't say enough about her, to be honest. She's just so steady and consistent for us," Burris said of Brown. "Without her, we wouldn't be in a lot of these games. I'm proud of her effort and we're still trying to offer some help for her."
Laynee Torres-Kahapea added a third scorer in double figures late in the game Saturday. She finished with 12 points, 10 of which came in the fourth quarter. It was Torres-Kahapea's first time in double figures in the past nine games.
Chicken and Torres-Kahapea also accounted for nine of the Vikings' 15 assists, which came on 23 field goals. That was a better assist percentage than the Vikings had Thursday, though ironically it came with a worse field goal percentage as the Vikings shot just 36.5 percent (23-for-63) from the field against the Vandals. That snapped a five-game streak of shooting 40+ percent for the Vikings.
Portland State now heads into a difficult three-game road trip that will see the Vikings play back-to-back-to-back at Montana (Jan. 29), Montana State (Jan. 31) and Idaho State (Feb. 2) over a five-day stretch.
Burris isn't making any excuses for her Vikings ahead of that trip, however.
"I just told them I'm not used to this feeling and they can't be either. We expect to be in games because I think we can be. That's still the message. We can be in these games. We're going to compete and we expect to win them," Burris said.
"[After the Montana and Montana State games] we're excited to play the teams a second time around after seeing them face-to-face. So, we expect to go on a run. That's the expectation. It hasn't turned out for us just yet, but we've lost some close games and hopefully we're going to turn that around."
Game Notes:
- The Vikings fell to 15-39 all-time against the Vandals. They're 2-20 against the Vandals within Big Sky play.
- The Vikings shot better from the free throw line than they did Thursday, going 15-for-19 (.789) from the line against the Vandals. The Vikings were 13-for-27 (.481) from the line Thursday.
- Chicken has scored in double figures in 10 of the Vikings' last 11 games. She had a nine-game streak snapped Thursday when she was held to six points while playing a season-low 17:45 due to foul trouble.
