Recap: Box Score : Cumulative Stats

Portland, Oregon -  The city drenched in the Nike Swoosh wasn’t kind to the Reebok clad Wolverines of Utah Valley State as they lost to the University of Portland 74-58 in Portland on Thursday night.                      

Miriam Palkki matched her career high, scoring 25 for the Wolverines in a game that was much closer than the final score indicated.

Utah Valley State had a chance with just over a minute to make it one possession game, but a Palkki three fell wide and the Wolverines were forced to foul the rest of the way.

The loss puts Coach Cathy Nixon’s club at 1-11 on the season, while Portland improved to 5-7.

Courtney Lynn scored a career high 13 and had her first two career NCAA blocks in the game. Kaydee Allred and Katie Wilson both pulled down 10 rebounds for the Wolverines, who out-rebounded the Pilots 51-36.

Amy Botto led the Pilots with 22, who were without their leading scorer Ashley Orndorff, who was suspended for a violation of team rules.  Meagan Bermingham filled in nicely for Orndorff, scoring 18 points and pulling down 12 rebounds.

After the teams traded buckets early in the 2nd half, Portland scored 12 straight to take a 49-41 lead before a Rebekah Fales three broke the drought.

A Palkki bucket and free throw cut the lead to two at 51-49 with 9:02 to play. Then Palkki did it on the defensive end with a block that started a Susie Cornejo to Fales lay-up that tied the game at 51.

The Pilots led by two when Rose Sauer hit a big three with just over 5:30 to play to give Portland a 58-53 lead.

The Wolverines fell down by six when Amy Botto hit a tough shot with Courtney Lynn in her face with just over four minutes to play.

A Courtney Lynn bucket cut the lead to four with 1:48 to go, but that’s as close as the Wolverines could get.

In the first half both teams had big runs. Portland had a 9-0 run early that gave them a quick 12-4 lead. But the Wolverines answered thanks to two of Palkki’s three-pointers, going on 13-4 run.

After the Pilots ran off eight straight, Palkki was at it again hitting two more from beyond the arc to cap off her 16 point first half and giving Utah Valley State a 34-30 half time lead.

The Wolverines return to Utah for the New Year before hitting the road again on January 4th at Idaho State. That game will be the first of three games in five nights next week.

On Thursday Utah Valley State will host Montana State before an in-state match-up at Weber State on Saturday, January 8th.