Kahle has record breaking outing as Vikings beat Portland to advance in WNIT Tourney

Though St. Patrick’s day has come and gone, Viking forward Kelsey Kahle is happy to still be seeing green.

“It feels like we’ve been playing in a red gym for a while,” Kahle said, referring to the Vikings last three games, all played at the University of Montana. “Its nice to be back in a green gym.”

With the home crowd behind her, Kahle poured in 30 points and collected 10 rebounds to lead the Vikings past the cross-town Portland Pilots, advancing to the second round of WNIT.

The 57-51 win represents Portland State’s first Division I post-season victory ever, and also the continuation of Kahle’s assault on the program’s record books. In her school-best seventh career 30 point game, Kahle also broke the school’s all-time rebounding record.

“I can’t even think of the words to describe how good it felt to play back home again,” she said after the game.

Though the home team proved triumphant at the end of the night, the visiting Pilots did not by any means roll over and die. Coming into the game, they were looking to avenge their 72-56 loss to the Vikings on November 26.

The Vikings jumped out to an early 19-10 lead, but the Pilots closed the gap and ended the half with a 15-2 run that put them up at the break, 25-21.

“We just kept battling,” Portland head coach Jim Sollars said of his team’s effort.

The Vikings looked to strike early in the second half, scoring the first two baskets on a Kahle lay-up and Lexi Bishop three-pointer. Bishop tallied a season high 12 points, making four of Portland State’s five three pointers on the night.

But the Pilots refused to back down, heading a 14-4 run that put them up 39-30 with 15 minutes left in the game. The Vikings’ cause was not helped by an off-shooting night from junior guard Claire Faucher, who went a dismal 0-10 from the field, making only a pair of free-throws for two points on the night.

But, in her usual style, Faucher dished a game high eight assists, many to the red-hot Kahle, who finished the night a scorching 11-12 from the field and 8-8 from the line.

Kahle and Bishop sparked a 15-2 Viking run that put the home-team ahead 45-41, but the Pilots rallied behind the stellar play of guard Laiken Dollente, who finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and three steals.

It wasn’t until Kahle drained a jumper and hit a pair of free-throws in the final minute that the Vikings were able to distance themselves from their cross-town rivals. After the final buzzer, Kahle and her teammates already had their minds focused on the next hurtle in the road.

“Right now we’re all thinking about Saturday and going down to OSU again,” Kahle said.

Head coach Sherri Murrell echoed the sentiment.

“That’s the one game of the season we wanted back,” Murrell said, referring to the Beavers 58-24 drubbing of the Vikings on December 7. “All we need to do is figure out how to score,” she added.

If their first post-season game is any indication, the Vikings plan on meeting the Beavers with a much different looking team than earlier in the season.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday at Gill Coliseum.

Written by Doug Cornett, Vanguard staff

Basketball squads prepare for stretch run

With their mid-season "hump" game coming up this weekend against Eastern Washington both the men's and women's basketball squads are preparing for a string of games that will likely decide their post-season fates.

The men will take on Eastern Washington this weekend in the Stott Center. The Eagles are a talented squad but seem to be playing inconsistent and outside of talented transfer Benny Valentine should not be able to run with the Vikings. Here's a shot of Benny being "educated" by former Texas Tech head coach Bobby Knight.After this weekends contest the Vikings play four of their next six on the road in the most hostile environments that the Big Sky can offer in the Montana road swing and then facing Weber State and Idaho State.

If Portland State can slide through that stretch undefeated, they will solidify themselves again as the conference's toughest team and likely claim the right to host the Big Sky Tournament again.

The women also take on the Eagles on Saturday and then face the Montana schools at home next weekend. It looks like the race for the Big Sky on the women's side will come down to either Portland State and Montana.

Both squads have looked dominant up to this point in Big Sky play. If the Vikings can get take the first matchup between the two teams they obviously have the upper hand heading into the stretch run of games.

Portland State fans could have the opportunity to cheer on both teams in the Rose City as they both vie for a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

On a different note, men's basketball beat writer pointed out a scheduling quirk that could keep the Vikings from hosting the Big Sky Tournament in the Rose Garden as they did last season.

The tournament, scheduled to be played during the second week of March, would have to work around the Blazers scheduled games that week on Monday and Wednesday.

It seems likely that the squad may just play earlier in the day, although that will probably screw up all the television contracts and such or that the tournament will be moved to Memorial Coliseum.

Or we could ask the Pilots if they mind sparing their gym for some championship level basketball...







Here's some food for thought links that taste way better than a student-run vegan cafe....

Statistical analysis that the Cardinals suck. Or at least, the television ratings of Cardinals games suck compared to prior seasons. Of course these numbers dwarf any other sports playoff games.

The Week in Quotes from Football Outsiders...

I think we forget that The Oregonian has some pretty talented sports writers outside of Canzano and J Quick. Here is Mike Tokito's piece on Brandon Roy getting his jersey retired at Washington last night.

On to more depressing news of the NBA, Wally Szczerbiak's big contract apparently doesn't help him find clothes for a grown man playing in the league.

In other disturbing roundball news, Chris Tomasson has a story on the potential that 2010 could be remebered not as the year of Lebron James moving to New York, but as the year of the lockout... As in NBA lockout... Yikes.

And in a sad story it looks like Jefferson County in Kentucky will be making an example of a football coach who, allegedly, pushed his football players too far during the heat of a summer practice. Here is the story.

PSU vs. Northern Colorado Live Blog

We're here at the Stott Center live blogging the Vikings matchup with Northern Colorado.

No doubt about it, the expectation is on senior forward Kelsey Kahle and the possibility that she could break the all-time scoring record in school history today.

She is just 22 points back and with the Vikings playing on the road next week at Eastern Washington I am sure that Kahle and others would not mind seeing the record fall today as opposed to next Saturday in Cheney.

Check back later for more updates.

Vikings suffer first home loss of season

For just the second time in two seasons the women's basketball team stumbled at the Stott Center. The Vikings were defeated by Utah Valley University 102-92 in a overtime game.

The Vikings trailed for nearly the entire game and fell behind by eight points with just 1:30 to play before a three-point play by senior forward Kelsey Kahle cut the lead to just five.

Missed free throws by the Wolverines, offensive rebounds, and some timely shooting from freshman guard Eryn Jones gave the Vikings an opportunity to tie trailing 82-79 with under a minute to play.

After a busted play, sophomore post Courtney Cremer found herself with the ball at the top of the circle and launched a desperation three-pointer from well behind the men's arc. It was just her fourth attempt of the season but Cremer's prayer banked in (although judging from her reaction, it wasn't called).

A shot by the aforementioned Asumi Nakayama was off and the teams headed to overtime.

Despite blowing the lead in the waning moments of regulation the Wolverines regrouped and dominated the overtime period outscoring the Vikings 20-10. The victory improved Utah Valley's record to 4-7 and dropped Portland State to 8-4. Two of the Vikings losses have come in overtime.

It was Portland State's final tune-up before the Big Sky season play begins later this week, but the team looked anything but well-oiled in their non-conference finale. Point guard Claire Faucher struggled all game and finished with just five points on two for 10 shooting.

It was unclear if Sherri Murrell was experimenting with a different lineup, giving some of her starters some rest before the conference stretch run or reacting to lackluster performances from some of her starters but the head coach went with an unconventional strategy down the stretch. 10 Portland State players played more than 10 minutes.

With Faucher out of the game the Vikings would have struggled mightily were it not for the performance of Kahle. She finished the game with 30 points which included a 12 for 12 performance from the charity stripe. She also had four rebounds, four assists and three steals.

The Vikings certainly were lucky to find themselves even in the game after committing 13 costly turnovers and shooting 36 percent from the field and 27 percent from the three point arc.

Even more discouraging for Viking fans is the fact that this team, again, gave up more than 100 points to Utah State. The Vikings will likely face far more talented teams in Big Sky opponents Montana, Montana State and Northern Colorado.

In Monday's game the Vikings inability to get stops on the defensive end forced them into playing a fast-tempo shooting match with the Wolverines. Normally with Faucher at the helm this would seem like a winning idea. But the honorable mention All-American player was on the bench.

With inexperienced, and often tired-looking players, on the court, the Vikings looked like a team that still has some growing pains to experience.

Portland State will face Sacramento State and Northern Arizona this weekend.

PSU women trail Utah Valley at the half

With the men's squad out of town tonight, no good bowl games to watch I decided to watch the Vikings take on Utah Valley in the Stott Center.

The result so far: unimpressive.

Taking on a squad that they gave up 104 points to in a game last season in Orem, Utah, the Vikings have yet to play solid defense on two consecutive Wolverine possessions.


Utah Valley is in their final year of transitioning to become a full-fledged member of Division I. They seem to be making a good go of it. I know they have fielded competitive men's and women's basketball squads this season. This comes less than 10 years after serving as a junior college feeder school to BYU, Utah and Utah State.

Back to the game-

Attendance is pretty scarce. I am not going to bail out the students on this one. It seems weird sitting on press row and being able to hear every cheer, complaint and comment from either bench. I guess I have been attending to many men's games.

Freshman point guard Eryn Jones started her third consecutive game and has played well although I have not quite figured out the logic to head coach Sherri Murrell's rotation yet. She seems to be favoring her bench heavily and point guard Claire Faucher and wing Katia Hadj-Hamou have yet to look comfortable on the floor.

It has been interesting to watch the development of former walk-on Kate DePaepe. After a solid career at Tualatin High and playing sparingly in nine games last season the southpaw is serving as one of the more consistent performers coming off the bench this year replacing some of the scholarship players that she played behind last season.

The Vikings have kept the game close thanks in large part to Kelsey Kahle's 14 points but have hindered their own ability to come back by missing several close-range layups. they have also committed dozens of turnovers. (I do not know the actual number but I do know they have been very careless with the ball)

I am not sure if it's the post-Christmas spirit kicking in but the dainty crowd is all over the referee's here. The zebra's aren't helping themselves either, missing a few painfully obvious calls.

One fashion note for you uniform heads... I know that this is small college women's basketball but Utah Vally looks more like a high-school team than any I have ever seen. Maybe it's the font on their jerseys... They are also all wearing some sort of black knee-pads. Not quite as big as the ones that Patrick Ewing used to wear but nonetheless interesting.

The Wolverines aslo feature a 5-4 point guard from Saitama, Japan. Reading from her bio she isn't some exchange student or someone who prepped in the United States, (a la Donotas Visockis) she is actually from Japan and led her team to the National Championship in high school.

I point this out because the player, Asumi Nakayama, is wearing the first pair of Asics basketball shoes I have ever seen. Besides being pretty unique they stick out like a sore thumb in contrast to the rest of hte players Nike's and Addidas'.