Home perfection snapped

After beginning their season with a flawless 12-0 home record, the Vikings (20-8, 10-5 BSC) quest for perfection ended in a heartbreaking 74-70 loss to Montana State Thursday night. The defeat also ended Portland State’s hopes for a top-two seed in next week’s conference tournament, as the Vikings are now in a third place tie with the Bobcats (15-12, 10-5).

Playing in just their second game in 11 days, the Vikings were unable to shake off the rust in the first half, shooting a lowly 33.3 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from behind the three-point arc.

Despite improved play in the second half, Portland State was unable to overcome the solid interior play of Montana State junior forward Krislyn Wallace, who led the Bobcats with 23 points and nine rebounds.

“We really struggled to respond tonight and ended up getting beat on the boards,” said head coach Sherri Murrell. “That really hurt our chances.”

Lack of rebounding has remained one of the Vikings’ main problems throughout this season, and Thursday’s contest continued that trend. Portland State gave up 18 offensive rebounds en route to being dominated on the boards 51-37.

When junior forward Kelsey Kahle headed to the bench early in both halves with foul trouble, Portland State struggled to match up with the Bobcats’ post players without their best interior player.

“Having Kelsey out of the game was unfortunate. We had players come in that never adjusted to what they were doing,” Murrell said.

Despite the foul trouble and the rebounding problems, freshman Kelli Valentine and sophomore guard Claire Faucher kept the Vikings in the game through much of the second half. Valentine continued her aggressive play with 23 points and nine rebounds while Faucher added 18 points and dished out 10 assists.

Portland State certainly had their chances to earn the victory; however, the Vikings were able to convert on only seven of their 12 free-throw attempts, including two misses by Faucher in the final minute.

Montana State sophomore Erica Perry would provide the difference in the waning moments, hitting all four of her attempts from the charity stripe.

Had the Vikings pulled out the victory and managed a win against visiting Montana on Saturday, Portland State would have earned the second seed in the conference tournament and, more importantly, a first round bye. With the loss, the Vikings are now likely to fall to the fourth seed, and will be forced to play three games in consecutive nights at the Big Sky Tournament in Missoula, Mont., next week.

“It is a little heartbreaking losing here tonight like this,” Murrell said. “But I told the players to forget about this loss and start focusing on how we can respond in our next game and at the Big Sky Tournament.”