Hanna Seltzer’s last second shot bounced off the rim as the University of Portland women’s basketball team lost to the Illinois State Redbirds, 61-59 on Sun., Dec. 22 at the Chiles Center in Portland, OR. Portland moves to 3-6 on the season, while Illinois State improves to 2-6 overall.

The Pilots controlled the lead for much of the first half and jumped to a 6-0 lead with 17:29 left. Portland then went on a 9-4 run with just 14:06 left in the first half, but the Redbirds closed the gap and went on a 15-7 run, for a 32-31 halftime lead. After the break, both teams came out shooting, with Portland gaining their last lead of the night at 35-33. Illinois State played tough on the boards and out-rebounded the Pilots, 45-26. The Redbirds also racked up 14 second-chance points, 30 points in the paint and 35 points from its bench. Portland managed 18 points from the bench and 24 points in the paint, but had the advantage scoring 18 points off Illinois State turnovers.

“We got killed on the boards and that’s the difference in the game,” said head Coach Jim Sollars.

Portland’s Khalila O’Rielly-Williams led all players with a season-high 24 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the field and 6-of-10 shooting from the free-throw line. O’Rielly-Williams also tallied eight rebounds, a season-best three blocked shots and two steals. Michaela Dalgleish notched 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field, 1-of-6 shooting from behind the arc and 4-of-5 shooting from the free-throw line. Jaime Medley and Amy Botto combined for 14 points in the game. As a team, the Pilots went 19-of-52 from the field (36.5 percent) 4-of-17 from behind the arc (23.5 percent) and 17-of-26 (65.4 percent) from the free-throw line.

“Khalila (O’Rielly-Williams) had a great game,” said Sollars. “When we don’t shoot about 40 percent, we struggle. We just have to keep plugging away and improve our game to be successful.”

Illinois State’s Taren O’Brien scored 18 points on 5-of-14 shooting from the field, 3-of-6 shooting from three-point range and 5-of-8 shooting from the charity stripe. Teammate Zora Skrabalova added 14 points and nine rebounds. The Redbirds went 22-of-51 from the field, 5-of-10 from three-point range and 12-of-19 from the free-throw line for the game.

UP NEXT: On Mon., Dec. 30, Portland heads to Riverside, CA to take on UC Riverside at 7:00 p.m.