Hornets sting Vikings

Portland State’s women’s basketball team suffered a third-straight loss, this time to the Sacramento State Hornets. The Vikings and the Hornets are both vying for the sixth and final spot in the Big Sky post-season tournament. The loss puts the Vikings at 13-12, 5-7 in conference, just one game ahead of the Hornets at 10-17, 5-9. Sacramento State used their home court advantage to the fullest and pulled out a late, second-half victory over Portland State, 71-67.

Head coach Sherri Murrell said this was a game the Vikings should have won.

“We did not take care of the ball,” Murrell said. “We worked on our press all week. I thought we did a decent job second half, but in the first half [players] did not handle their pressure and [did] not handle their plays.”

The Hornets took the lead early, but back-to-back jumpers by guard duo Courtney VanBrocklin and Eryn Jones tied the score at 12midway through the first half. The Vikings couldn’t hold on, though, and went into the locker room down 35-31.

“The thing about Sac State is they press the whole game,” Jones said. “It took us a while to get use to their pressure.”

The second half was all about Jones and sophomore guard Kate Lanz on offense. The two combined for 26 of the Vikings’ 36 second-half points. Despite the effort by Lanz and Jones, the Hornets held a slight advantage for most of the second half.

“Offensively, Eryn Jones had one of her better games,” Murrell said. “I could see it in her eyes she wanted to win, but we weren’t able to put the whole thing together.”

Jones echoed Murrell’s comments.

“We played really hard the whole time,” Jones said. “It was frustrating; I really thought we were going to win. We had some little errors at the end that I think got us. I am just glad to get to play them again so soon because we can learn from those mistakes.”

The Vikings did manage to beat the Hornets on rebounds. Although the Vikings pushed the Hornets around on defense, they struggled offensively at getting the ball to the low posts.

“We didn’t get any points production from our post players. It was all guard shots,” Murrell said. “Offensively, we missed a lot of lay-ins under the basket, but defensively, we did a good job posting up.”

The loss puts the Vikings in an uphill battle to make a post-season appearance. They still have four games left on the schedule, and with the exception of their second game against Sac State, they are all against teams that have already clinched post-season berths.

The Hornets, on the other hand, have just two games left—Portland State and top-ranked Idaho State. This is a positive for the Vikings, because the Hornets would need to win their two games and have the Vikings lose their four games in order for Sacramento State to secure the sixth spot.

Murrell said the Vikings are not ready to throw in the towel, even if the upcoming games are tough.

“We talked to the kids and said, ‘the teams that crumble, that don’t get in the tournament, they are letting the losses consume them’,” Murrell said. “We can’t do that. We can’t be okay with that.”

The Vikings hit the road Thursday for their matchup against second-ranked Eastern Washington.

“I think Eastern will be a tough game,” Jones said. “But even though we have lost the last couple games, we have played better as a team. We are waiting for our work to pay off.”

The game is slated for 7 p.m. and can be followed on goviks.com by clicking the live events tab.