PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland State's Cici Ellington and Kyleigh Brown hit a pair of three-pointers in the final 15 seconds of regulation to send Thursday night's game against Northern Arizona to overtime. But the Lumberjacks outscored the Vikings 10-2 in the extra period to secure an 88-80 victory at Viking Pavilion.
 
Three straight offensive rebounds on the Lumberjacks' first three possessions in overtime helped set the tone. It was still only a three-point game at that point, but the Vikings (6-18, 2-10) also went cold from the field, missing their first seven shots in overtime and not scoring until the final seconds.
 
The loss prevented the Vikings from earning their first back-to-back wins of the season, after they broke through with a 64-62 win over Sacramento State last Saturday.
 
"A really tough loss. This one hurt," Portland State head coach Karlie Burris said. "My message to the team in the locker room afterwards was that I was really proud of the fight to even send it into overtime. Obviously, they totally out-rebounded us in OT, which hurt. I thought we let Naomi [White, NAU's leading scorer] get free too many teams. A few miscues.
 
"But again, the message was that we can compete and we're right there."
 
The Vikings gave themselves a chance with their late heroics in regulation. They trailed 76-72 after NAU's Madison Watts hit one of two free throws with 26 seconds remaining. The Vikings found Brown open for a three-pointer out of timeout that made it a one-point game with 14.0 seconds remaining. Kayla Williams pushed it out to a three-point lead again for the Lumberjacks (9-17, 5-8) with a pair of free throws. Brown then found Ellington open on the right wing for a tying three-pointer with 6.0 seconds remaining.
 
The Vikings slowed down NAU enough after Ellington's three that the Lumberjacks' Naomi White was left with a running 30-footer as time expired.
 
It didn't work out for the Vikings from there, but they can still take away positives from Thursday's game. Chiefly, the offense scoring 80 points represented the Vikings' highest scoring output within Big Sky play this season. The Vikings' 78 points in regulation were 10 more than they had in any other conference game.
 
Four different Vikings scored 16 or more points between Ellington (20), Brown (18), Laynee Torres-Kahapea (18) and Hannah Chicken (16). Scoring balance has been a recent theme for the Vikings as they also had four in double figures against Idaho State on Feb. 2, then had three with 15+ against Sacramento State last Saturday.
 
Ten of Ellington's 20 points came in the fourth quarter. She scored eight of the Vikings' final 11 points in regulation, with the only exception being Brown's three-pointer with 16.0 seconds remaining. She had a go-ahead layup off a steal from Taylor Moffat with 4:48 remaining. She tied it again at 72-72 with one of two free throws with 2:07 remaining.
 
Ellington totaled 17 points and nine rebounds in the second half alone, after playing only 4:36 in the first half due to foul trouble. She finished a rebound shy of a double-double with 20 points, nine rebounds and two blocks for the game.
 
"I've been liking her energy better recently and we're just trying to instill some confidence in her. She's a matchup nightmare. We needed her late. We needed those points [in the fourth quarter], and she rose to the occasion," Burris said of Ellington.
 
Torres-Kahapea scored 14 of her 18 points after halftime. She hit a three-pointer with 8:45 remaining that gave the Vikings a four-point lead in the fourth quarter. But the Lumberjacks responded with a 7-0 run to go in front from there.
 
Torres-Kahapea finished with 18 points – the second-highest total of her career – while adding seven rebounds and three assists.
 
"We need Laynee to do that," Burris said of Torres-Kahapea's game. "We need her to push pace. I thought she did a really good job of trying to take care of the ball with [NAU's JBionna] Robinson heckling her the whole game and trying to run our offense. I was proud of her," Burris said of Torres-Kahapea.
 
Chicken and Brown took the lead for the Vikings early in the game. Chicken had 12 of her 16 points in the first half, as well as five of her game-high 11 rebounds. The 16 points and 11 rebounds represented her second double-double of the season, while she added three steals and two blocks. Brown, meanwhile, scored 13 of her 18 points in the first half. She also played all 45 minutes Thursday.
 
Defensively, the Vikings struggled at times against White, the Big Sky's leading scorer. White led all players with 25 points while going 4-for-8 from three-point range and adding eight rebounds. Williams also scored 24 points on 9-for-15 shooting for the Lumberjacks, while Watts posted a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds while adding six assists.
 
"It's hard to win any game, but these games don't just get handed to you. I thought we could have done a better job of just being the first to the ball and rebounding a little bit more and executing down the stretch. But again, I thought we made strides and gave ourselves an opportunity to win the game," Burris said.
 
The Vikings will have to move on quickly from Thursday's loss as they host Northern Colorado Saturday at 2 p.m. The Bears handled the Vikings in their first meeting on Jan.15, using an early lead to run away with an 80-60 victory over the Vikings.
 
"We can't hang on to this one for too long. We're going to watch the film and see where we can improve and then it's a whole different monster as it relates to Northern Colorado," Burris said.
 
Game Notes:

• The Vikings still lead the all-time series between them and the Lumberjacks, 32-31, despite Thursday's loss.
• Thursday marked the first time the Vikings had lost a game in which they scored 70+ points this season, as well as only their second loss when recording more field goal attempts than their opponent.
• Brown extended her double-digit scoring streak to 30 straight games.
• NAU outshot the Vikings .429-to-.394 Thursday. The Vikings haven't won a game this season in which their opponent has shot over 40 percent, with Thursday's loss dropping them 0-16 in such games.

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