Underestimated from the start

Despite completing the best regular season in Portland State Division I women’s basketball history, the Vikings head to the Big Sky Tournament as the No. 4 seed, and will need to reel off three victories in three nights to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Before the season began, Big Sky coaches and the media selected Portland State to finish sixth in the conference. However, the Vikings have surpassed expectations with a 21-win campaign during their inaugural season under head coach Sherri Murrell.

“Our goal all season has been to take things one game at a time, but we have long term goals of winning (the tournament),” Murrell said.

Under Murrell, the Vikings have adopted a new playing style featuring aggressive defense and highlighting the steady play of sophomore point guard Claire Faucher, who was named first team All-Big Sky Tuesday.

In its last contest before the conference tournament, Portland State picked apart regular-season conference champion Montana behind Faucher’s triple-double, the first in the conference this season and the first for a Viking player since 1994. Faucher also set the all-time Big Sky Conference assist record for a season during the game, dishing out her 252nd dime this season.

“I told Claire after the game that she was ‘unstoppable,'” Murrell said.

Behind the play of Faucher and Co., Portland State features perhaps the conference’s most impressive Big Sky resume, including solid victories over every potential tournament foe with the exception of Montana State.

The Vikings boast a 6-4 record against the teams in the Big Sky Tournament. But in those six victories over tournament teams the Vikings decimated their opponent, winning by an average of 21.8 points.

Should Portland State get past Northern Colorado in their first round game, the Vikings will face host Montana. When the two teams met last Saturday, Portland State had their way with the visiting Lady Grizzlies despite playing without Murrell who the conference for comments she made about the officials following the Montana State game two days earlier.

“I think we are actually happy about getting to match up with them if we win that first game,” Murrell said. “The last two years in this tournament the host team has lost, so that bodes well for us.”

The victory over Montana continued the trend of remarkable basketball in the South Park Blocks this season. Despite the fact that eight of the 12 Portland State players that earn minutes for Murrell are freshmen or sophomores, the Vikings have regained their fans’ confidence with stellar play this season.

After posting victories over Gonzaga, University of California, Santa Barbara, and Hawaii early this season, the Vikings continued to surpass expectations during conference play.

While the Vikings certainly hit a few bumps along their journey to the postseason-including an overtime loss to Weber State and their first home loss of the season to Montana State last week-the Vikings should present a daunting task to opponents in the Big Sky Conference Tournament.

“All those close games (whether wins or losses) that we played will hopefully help us at some point this weekend,” Murrell said.