1,803

Kelsey Kahle didn’t need a lot of words to express herself after Saturday’s 92-71 victory over Northern Colorado, in which she surpassed the school’s all-time career scoring mark.

“It feels good,” she said simply, exhaustedly. One look at her and you could tell she meant it.

Kahle was anything but comfortable with the swarm of media attention that followed her last week in anticipation of her breaking the career point mark of 1,801, held for nearly 17 years by Laurie Northrup (1988¬92).

The senior forward doesn’t like to bask in her many personal achievements, and when pressed she always reverts attention to her talented teammates. But whether she liked it or not, the crowd gathered in the Stott Center on Saturday afternoon was there to see a milestone.

With a pump fake, step dribble and lay-in with 7:48 left to go in the game, the native of Aurora, Ore., gave the people what they came to see.

During the ensuing time-out, as the crowd cheered wildly for her historic moment, Kahle let the weeks of pressure and attention melt away with a well-earned smile.

She shared a hug with head coach Sherri Murrell, who has guided Kahle to continued success over her last two seasons at the Park Blocks.

“I told Kelsey before the game, ‘I’m probably more nervous than you are,'” Murrell said. “Kelsey just said, ‘I doubt that.'”

Kahle’s record-breaking bucket came when the game was already out of reach for Northern Colorado, and after the time-out and subsequent standing ovation, she didn’t return to the game.

For most of the matchup, Portland State looked like a team ready to contend in the Big Sky and charge into the postseason with steam.

With the game still close in the first half, the Vikings applied a stifling full-court press, which accounted for a heap of turnovers for the Bears and a bundle of transition points for the home team.

Portland State continued their hawking defense for the rest of the game, forcing Northern Colorado into 20 turnovers, resulting in 25 easy buckets for Portland State. 

“They never had any easy shots,” Murrell said of her team’s unusually superb defense. “They always had a hand in their face.”

While Kahle’s performance highlighted the Portland State victory, the Vikings deadeye shooting performance certainly helped Murrell’s squad coast to their fifth conference victory in as many tries.

Steady ball movement resulted in quality shots and the made baskets were abundant as the team went for a season-high 58.3 percent from the field, and 50 percent from behind the arc.
“We had good spacing on offense, we spread the ball around and we were able to get good shots,” Murrell said. “It always helps when they are going in, too.”

Kahle led the scoring charge with 23 points, and sophomore forward Kelli Valentine was right behind her with 20 on the day.

The starting backcourt of Claire Faucher and Eryn Jones had a solid afternoon as well, scoring 11 points apiece with Faucher dishing out a game-high 11 assists.