MSU Drops to Portland State in BSC Championship Game
3/13/2010 7:22:44 PM | Women's Basketball
It had not been a good tournament for the white jerseys. Every higher seed wearing the white took an early exit from the Big Sky Conference women's basketball tournament. First, Idaho State, then Sacramento State, then number two seed Montana and finally number one seed Eastern Washington. So, coming into the championship game, Portland State might have been hesitant about being the higher seed and wearing the white.
But jersey color did not stop the Vikings (18-14) from beating Montana State (18-14) in the first-ever championship game between the two lowest seeds in the tournament. The Vikings held on in the last thirty seconds of the game to come away with the 62-58 victory.
“I think if you hold a team like Portland State to 62 that's a really good situation but it's a game of possession and we just turned the ball over too much,” MSU head coach Tricia Binford said.
There were some interesting story lines in the tournament. First there was the fact that the two lowest seeds had never met in the championship and the white jersey twist. Then, there was the build-up of the battle between the two senior point guards Erica Perry of MSU and Claire Faucher of PSU. But in the end the story that spoke the loudest was the number of turnovers for MSU.
MSU had four turnovers by the first media timeout to PSU's one. After the 12-minute media timeout, with the score tied at 11, Portland State went on a 7-0 run, pushing the score to 18-11. Sarah Strand then took matters into her own hands and sunk two three-pointers to bring the Cats back within one. At 1:34 left in the first half, Rachel Semansky scored a lay-in to tie the score at 24. An MSU drought followed where PSU went on a 5-0 run to finish out the first half 29-24. At the half, the Cats had ten turnovers to PSU's four. Strand ended the half with 13 points playing 18 minutes. Trying to ward off fatigue, both teams played nine players in the first half.
Perry scored six points in the first five minutes of the second half after a total of only three in the first half. At 14:16 left in the game, Katie Bussey hit a three-pointer that tied the game at 40 apiece. It was answered with a three by Raucher. After a breakaway lay-up by Perry, Raucher answered with another three-pointer putting PSU up 47-44.
But turnovers continued to be the story of the game. A critical over-and-back by the Cats at 2:05 left in the game gave PSU the ball back and up one. Portland scored on the next possession and kept the lead until the final buzzer. MSU ended with a higher shooting percentage and more rebounds than Portland State, but had 20 turnovers to PSU's nine.
“I think we were never able to get over the hump because we turned the ball over so much against the zone,” head coach Tricia Binford said. “It's a game of possessions and we rebounded the way we've typically been rebounding and we were in that game to get the job done, we just turned the ball over too much.”
Claire Faucher led the Vikings with 26 points and was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament. Perry and Strand were also on the all-tourney team in addition to Eryn Jones and Kelli Valentine of PSU and Oana Iacovita of Idaho State.
