EUGENE — The second-seeded Oregon Ducks will be prohibitive favorites Friday when they meet 15th-seeded Portland State in the first round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.
And that is fine with the Vikings. They wouldn’t be at Matthew Knight Arena if they were afraid of a challenge.
Seniors Ashley Bolston, Sidney Rielly and Courtney West came in on the ground floor of the PSU program when coach Lynn Kennedy arrived to pick up the pieces in fall 2015.
All were transfers, Bolston from Washington State, Rielly from Santa Clara and West from Southern Oregon.
They redshirted as PSU went 4-26.
That was the basement. Three years later, the Vikings are 25-7 and Big Sky tournament champions. They believe they have a puncher’s chance at 6 p.m. Friday against a 29-4 Oregon team that some have penciled into the Final Four.
“Our redshirt year was tough coming in,” West said Thursday. “We needed a lot of momentum going forward, not having many wins the first year.”
The Vikings were 16-17 the next season and 19-13 last year.
This season, they thumped Idaho, the Big Sky’s regular-season champ, by 16 points in the conference tournament semifinals.
Then PSU won the title game over Eastern Washington 61-59 when freshman Desirae Hansen hit a jumper with three seconds left.
“It’s been an unforgettable experience for all of us,” Rielly said. “To be part of a complete turnaround of a program and to get an opportunity to play on a stage like this against Oregon is something we’ll remember forever.”
The Ducks won the Pac-12 regular-season title but had depth issues in the conference tournament.
Star forward Ruthy Hebard was dealing with a bone bruise in her right knee. Key sub Taylor Chavez was on the shelf with a foot fracture.
The Ducks were playing their third game in as many nights and gassed when they lost the Pac-12 tournament championship game to Stanford.
But Oregon is rested now. The 6-foot-4 Hebard is two weeks closer to full strength. The Ducks should look more like the team that dominated the regular season.
The Vikings know what they are up against. Oregon pounded them 88-60 in an exhibition game in fall 2017, and 90-46 in December 2016.
“We’ve probably watched Oregon more than any team just because they’re on (television) every week,” Kennedy said.
Which means PSU has seen more than enough of Hebard, two-time Pac-12 player of the year Sabrina Ionescu and 6-4 forward Satou Sabally.
“It’s really the combination of Sabrina and Ruthy,” Kennedy said. “There is no combo like that in the nation. Sabrina can break down a defense, and it allows Ruthy to get in the middle and do her thing inside the key.
“It’s containing both of them. I don’t think we can shut them down.”
The Vikings present problems too. They are balanced offensively, with four players in double figures. They start the 6-4 post combination of West and Jordan Stotler. West has blocked 85 shots this season.
“I tell my kids they’re going to be 6-4 the whole game,” UO coach Kelly Graves said. “They’re big, long kids. They’re good defenders. They change shots.”
Maybe the Vikings are most dangerous because they have nothing to lose.
Nobody outside of the Park Blocks expects PSU to win. But, sometimes, No. 15 seeds do the unexpected.
“This is March Madness, man,” Graves said. “Anything can happen.”
Can and did in the Big Sky Tournament. The Vikings were down by seven points with five minutes to play and clawed back to win.
Kennedy said if his team can keep from being blown off the floor early, well, who knows?
“We have to do the things we do well,” he said. “If we don’t, it’s going to be a long night. If we do, I think we can have some success in the first, second and third quarters and take it to the fourth quarter.”
Ionescu doesn’t need to be convinced. This isn’t the first NCAA Tournament experience for her or her UO teammates.
She said the Ducks are prepared for PSU’s best shot.
“We’ve been that team that came in as the 10th seed and upset some teams that overlooked us,” she said. “Knowing what it’s like to be on both sides is going to help us.”
-- Ken Goe
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