Vikings drop heartbreaker at home

The Portland State women’s basketball team led nearly the entire game on Thursday, until overtime woes gave the victory to Southern Utah University.

Head coach Sherri Murrell put freshman guard Emily Easom and junior forward Keaton McFadden in the starting lineup against the Thunderbirds, and both proved that they belonged there. Easom scored a career-high 12 points and added five steals, while McFadden had seven rebounds and one block.

“Emily Easom came out wanting to shoot,” Murrell said. “Even though she missed a lot of threes, she gave us a spark and gave us a lot of movement.”

The Vikings also welcomed back a strong inside threat as sophomore forward Mikaela Rivard, who missed the team’s previous game because of illness, returned to the lineup. Rivard contributed 10 points off the bench and was one of four players in double digits for Portland State. Sophomore guard Allison Greene continued her recent hot shooting, leading the team with 16 points, and senior guard Courtney VanBrocklin added 13 points and seven assists.

“I told them in the middle, ‘I loved our effort from beginning to end—effort was not an issue tonight,’” Murrell said. “It just breaks my heart because so many great things happened tonight.”

The Vikings led going into the locker room and held a small advantage for most of the second half. But with just over a minute to go, Southern Utah guard Sofia Hepworth connected on a jumper, and the Thunderbirds went up 57-56. From there, Greene responded with a jumper of her own to reclaim the lead for the Vikings, but a free throw by the Thunderbirds tied the game at 58-all and sent the game to overtime.

It was the second time this season the Vikings have played in overtime, the first being a win over the University of Oregon early in the season. Rivard opened the scoring in the extra period with a three-pointer, which ignited a seven-point run by the Vikings. But with less than a minute remaining and Southern Utah down by six, Thunderbirds guard Hailey Mandelko hit a three-pointer and got the foul. After Mandelko made her free throw, the Thunderbirds quickly recovered the ball on a steal and hit another field goal to tie the game. Southern Utah then got one more steal and a quick two points with four seconds left to seal the victory, 70-68.

“The past couple games, we’ve played with the most intensity we’ve played in conference,” Easom said. “We have not come up with wins, but the intensity that we’ve been playing with feels so much better.”

The loss dropped the Vikings into a tie with the University of North Dakota near the bottom of the standings, just above winless Weber State University. PSU hits the road next weekend to open the second half of conference play. They’ll play the University of Montana on Thursday at 6 p.m. and Montana State on Saturday at 1 p.m. Live stats for both games can be found at goviks.com.