Critical loss

With stellar shooting and rebounding, regular season champion Eastern Washington passed up the Portland State women’s basketball team in the final game of the regular season on Saturday. Eastern Washington’s Julie Piper went double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds to push the Eagles to a 78–68 win over the Vikings.

The loss sent PSU (15–14, 9–7 Big Sky) out of contention for a second place seed, and with wins from Montana and Sacramento State, forced them into the No. 5 seed in the Big Sky Tournament beginning on Thursday.

The Vikings held their only lead of the night at six minutes into the game. A layup by sophomore guard Katy Wade put PSU ahead 8–10, but they only held the lead for about two minutes until a shot by Kyla Evans put the Eagles (19–10, 14–4 Big Sky) ahead 13–11. From there, EW never looked back.

Although the Viks never regained the lead, the second half saw a much better performance for the Portland State squad. They improved their shooting from .357 to .394, but more notably their three-pointers found the mark in the second half. PSU went from shooting a dismal .091 average from above the arc in the first half to .500 in the second.

Head Coach Sherri Murrell said, “We were passing the ball to the right inside players, but shots just weren’t falling in the first half…in the second half they were, but we just need to learn how to play strong for the entire 40 minutes.”

It was three-pointers that got PSU back into the game. After starting the second half down 38–26, the Vikings showed some life. Threes from senior guard Claire Faucher and junior guard Lexi Bishop finished up an impressive 16–4 run, to tie the game 42-all.

Similar to the Viks’ early lead, this glimmer of domination would not last long. The Eagles began a nine-point streak less than a minute later off a three-point shot by Chene Cooper.

From there, the closest the Vikings would see to another tie was from a layup by junior center Courtney Cremer that pulled the team within three points, but Portland State would still be behind on the scoreboard, 58–55.

With just over a minute left the Viks began a series of fouls, attempting to regain possession, only to lead to the Eagles making all but two of their foul shots to put the final score, 78–68.

For the Vikings, junior forward Kelli Valentine led in points with 16. Faucher posted her fifth double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 assists, and also led the Vikings in rebounds with six, and steals, with four. Behind her, junior forward Kate DePaepe and sophomore guard Eryn Jones went in double digits with 11 each.

Despite the disappointing fifth-place finish to the regular season, the Vikings are headed to the Big Sky Tournament.

“This has been our goal since the tip-off of our very first game, to make it into the Big Sky Tournament,” Murrell said. “We need to give it everything.”

Because Eastern Washington is the overall champion of Big Sky play, the tournament will be held at their home court. The Vikings will see their first match up on Thursday in Cheney, Wash., against No. 4 Idaho State. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. at Reese Court.

Scores by period
                                     1st     2nd     Total
Portland State                26    42        68
Eastern Washington       38    40        78