SPORTS
Saturday, March 16, 2019
East Oregonian
B3
Portland State defeats Eastern Washington to win Big Sky
By JASON CHATRAW
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — When
Portland State coach Lynn
Kennedy drew up his
game-winning play with 19
seconds left in the Big Sky
Tournament championship
game, having Desirae Han-
sen heave up a shot wasn’t
part of the plan.
But when the plan fell
apart, it didn’t matter.
Hansen drained a 12-foot
jumper with 3.1 seconds
remaining to lift Portland
State to a 61-59 victory over
Eastern Washington and
claim the Big Sky tourna-
ment title and NCAA Tour-
nament berth on Friday.
“We had three options on
that play and (Hansen shoot-
ing) wasn’t one of them,”
Kennedy said laughing.
“But when we run last min-
ute drills in practice, Desi-
rae hits a lot of those shots.”
Hansen, the Big Sky’s
co-Top Reserve for the
2018-19 season, said she hit
the shot on the playground
many times as a young girl.
“Every little kid dreams
of hitting a shot like that,”
the freshman said. “Then
one day, you get a chance
and you hit it for real.”
Portland State (25-7),
which knocked off top-
seeded Idaho in the semifi-
nals, trailed by seven points
with 5:35 remaining but
closed the game on an 11-2
run. The only other time the
Vikings made the NCAA
tournament was in 2010
— when Eastern Wash-
ington hosted the Big Sky
tournament.
Kennedy, who took over
the Portland State program
that was in shambles four
AP Photo/Otto Kitsinger
Portland State celebrates their 61-59 win over Eastern Washington in an NCAA college basketball game in the championship of the Big Sky tournament in
Boise, Idaho, on Friday.
years ago coming off a 4-25
campaign, couldn’t stop
smiling after the game.
“Four years ago, these
players believed in a sys-
tem that wasn’t in place,”
Kennedy said. “We only
had three players on cam-
pus when we arrived. They
believed in an arena that
wasn’t built and they went to
work. But I go back to our
team retreat in the fall and
we all believed a hundred
percent that we would be in
this moment, cutting down
the nets.”
But that moment didn’t
come without a harrowing
finish that nearly resulted
in an Eastern Washington
upset.
Tournament MVP Ash-
ley Bolston tallied 16 points
and 10 rebounds to lead the
Vikings. Her short baseline
jumper with 1:50 remaining
gave Portland State a 59-57
lead, its first since early in
the third quarter.
Sixth-seeded
Eastern
Washington (13-20) fought
back to tie the game when
Jessica McDowell-White,
the Eagles’ hero from
Wednesday’s semifinal vic-
tory, made a soft floater in
the paint with 20 seconds
remaining to tie the game
at 59.
But Hansen’s shot held
up after Portland State’s
defense survived a pair of
shots in the waning seconds.
Courtney West added 11
points for Portland State,
while Sidney Rielly and Jor-
dan Stotler had 10 each.
Alissa Sealby scored
15 points and McDowell-
White added 14 to lead
Eastern Washington.
Big picture
Portland State: With a
strong inside game and one
of the Big Sky’s best outside
shooting teams, the Vikings
should prove to be a formi-
dable foe for whichever pro-
gram it meets in the first
round.
Eastern
Washington:
The Eagles will smart from
this loss all offseason as
they appeared to be in con-
trol with about six minutes
remaining before the wheels
came off. However, they
will have something posi-
tive to build on after start-
ing the season 2-11 and
coming within a whisker of
winning the tourney title.
More importantly, McDow-
ell-White, whose heady
inbounds pass to herself off
a Northern Colorado player
underneath the basket with
three seconds left led to the
game-winning bucket in the
semifinals, just completed
her freshman season and has
a promising future at East-
ern Washington.
Washington holds off Colorado
66-61 in the Pac-12 semifinals
By JOHN MARSHALL
AP Basketball Writer
LAS VEGAS — Jaylen
Nowell and Nahziah Carter
scored 14 points each, and
Washington held off a late
Colorado rally for a 66-61
victory in the Pac-12 tour-
nament semifinals Saturday
night.
The top-seeded Huskies
led by 14 before the Buffa-
loes cut the lead to 60-56
with 1:01 left. McKin-
ley Wright hit a 3-pointer
with 17 seconds left to cut
Washington’s lead to three,
but the Buffaloes let David
Crisp get behind them for a
breakaway layup to seal it.
After struggling in the
first half, Washington (26-
7) kicked its long-armed,
swarming defense into a
faster gear and the fifth-
seeded Buffaloes (21-12)
had trouble handling it.
Colorado shot 2 of 16
from 3-point range in the
second half and had 18 turn-
overs overall, leading to 24
Huskies points.
Washington had 13 steals
and held the Buffaloes to 32
percent shooting to earn
a spot in Saturday night’s
title game against Oregon or
Arizona State.
Tyler Bey had 22 points
and 11 rebounds, but Wright
was held to seven points on
1-of-10 shooting.
The Buffaloes were look-
ing to recapture the magic
of 2012, when they won four
games in four days to win
the Pac-12 title.
Colorado climbed the
first two rungs in Las Vegas,
grinding out a low-scor-
ing win over California,
and outlasting Oregon State
after blowing most of a
21-point lead.
Washington’s zone gave
the Buffaloes all kinds of
trouble in two regular-sea-
son meetings. The Hus-
kies opened with 12 straight
points in a seven-point win
in Boulder and led by up to
15 in a nine-point win in
Seattle.
The Buffaloes got off to
a much better start in Round
3.
Colorado handled Wash-
ington’s defensive pressure
without much trouble and
used a pair of 8-0 runs to
lead 33-27 at halftime.
Washington missed its
first five shots and went 4
for 15 from the 3-point arc,
but held Colorado score-
less for a nearly four-min-
ute stretch to keep the Buf-
faloes close.
The Huskies kept their
defensive mojo going into
the second half.
Contesting shots and
jumping into passing lanes,
Washington shut the Buffa-
loes down, going on a 10-0
run to go up 43-35. Colorado
St. Anthony Provider Spotligh t
missed its first nine shots of
the second half and had four
turnovers against Washing-
ton’s pressure.
Big picture
Colorado had a good run
at the Pac-12 tournament,
but its late-game comeback
against the Huskies came up
short.
Washington
showed
why it was the Pac-12’s
best defensive team with
a dominating second-half
performance.
Up next
Colorado should have
a decent shot at a smaller
postseason tournament.
Washington faces the
winner between Oregon and
Arizona State in the cham-
pionship game.
AP Photo/John Locher
Washington’s Matisse Thybulle, left, fouls Colorado’s Shane
Gatling during the first half of an NCAA college basketball
game in the semifinals of the Pac-12 men’s tournament on
Friday in Las Vegas.
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