Box Score

PORTLAND, Ore. - Portland State held the Navy women's basketball team to 28 percent shooting to help the Vikings post a 56-50 victory over the Mids Friday night at the Peter W. Stott Center in Portland, Ore.

"It was a weird game," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We didn't play as well as we have, certainly (compared to) in the last few weeks. We got some strange shots early on and missed badly."

Navy's (5-4) offense started the game by missing its first six shots from the floor to allow Portland State (1-5) to jump out to an 11-0 lead.

It still was an 11-point margin at 22-11 when the Mids started to chip away at the gap. Navy closed to within six points at 26-20 on a three-point field goal by Danielle Poblarp (So., Topeka, Kan.) with 2:52 remaining in the half. The Mids then had five possessions to cut into the margin more but had three possessions end with turnovers, one end after a missed two-point field goal attempt and another one close after a missed three-point shot. Navy's defense was equally stout, however, as it forced Portland State into four turnovers and a missed trey over the same stretch of time to keep the score 26-20 at the break.

The Mids started the second half by scoring on each of their first two possessions on a jumper from Haley Unger (Fr., Marlboro, N.J.) and a layup by Sarah Reilly (Fr., Cincinnati, Ohio). Navy soon made it a one-point game when Hannah Fenske (Fr., Albuquerque, N.M.) drained a three-point shot to pull the Mids to within 33-32 with 14:19 left in the game. Portland State responded by scoring the next six points to open up a 38-32 lead with just under 13 minutes showing on the clock.

The Mids had another run in them as a Chloe Stapleton (Sr., Cary, N.C.) triple winnowed the margin back down to two points at 41-39 with 8:29 left to play. Portland State scored on three of its next four possessions to extend the margin back out to eight points at 47-39 with 6:30 remaining. Navy was able to cut that deficit in half at 49-45 with just over four minutes left, but Lariel Powell drained a three-point shot on the next Portland State possession.

"I don't know if we totally overcame the rough start," said Pemper, "but we did in that we cut it down to two points multiple times. We just never found the right combination (of players) tonight."

Navy connected on 27.9 percent of its shots from the floor, while Portland State made 46.2 percent of its second half shots and 40.4 percent of its overall field goal attempts. The Vikings also held a 46-41 advantage on the glass, tallied 38 points in the paint to 18 for the Mids, and scored 10 fastbreak points while not allowing Navy to score a single point on a fastbreak.

"Portland State did a good job," said Pemper. "One of its defensive tactics was effective and it took us a while to understand it. Our defense was tough at times. We definitely didn't always make smart plays at important times, offensively and defensively. We can definitely play better."

Dunham tallied 10 points to lead the Navy offense, with Unger adding nine points and both Peri Curtis (Jr., San Diego, Calif.) and Reilly contributing seven points. Reilly additionally snared 12 boards.

Emily Easom scored 14 points for Portland State, Powell scored 13 points and Alicia Carline adding 11 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks.

Navy will remain on the road for a Saturday night game at Oregon, which is slated to tip at 10 p.m, EST.