PORTLAND, Ore. --- After a close game throughout, the Portland Pilots led Montana State late in the fourth quarter and were still within reach during the closing seconds, but in the end the Bobcats escaped the Chiles Center with a 70-66 win on Sunday afternoon. Sophomore Darian Slaga came off the bench to lead four Pilots in double figures with 17 points.
 
10 of Slaga's points came in the fourth quarter as the Pilots were able to build a five-point lead. Ashley Gray gave the Pilots their initial lead when she connected on a turn-around down low, and Slaga pushed the advantage to 58-53 when she drilled a three-pointer with 5:56 remaining.
 
But the Bobcats didn't falter, scoring the next six points to surge back in front. That's when Slaga came through again, draining another one from beyond the three-point arc to give the lead back to the Pilots with 2:37 showing on the clock.
 
Montana State then answered with a three-pointer of their own, and the Bobcats would soon lead by six with just more than a minute left to play. Holly Blades momentarily pulled the Pilots within two points when she hit a three with 18 seconds remaining, but Riley Nordgaard sealed the win for Montana State (6-3) with a pair of free throws.
 
Slaga hit all four of her free throws and knocked down three three-pointers to lead the Pilots in scoring for the fourth time this season.
 
Julie Spencer, who was 3-for-3 on three-pointers, matches a career high with 14 points, which she's down three times during Portland's (2-8) last four games. She also had a team-best eight boards to just miss a double-double.
 
Blades finished with 13 points, while Kaylie Van Loo added 10 points and six assists.
 
Five Bobcats scored in double digits, led by 17 points from Peyton Ferris. Ferris also corralled nine boards as Montana State claimed a slim 37-36 edge on the glass.
 
The Bobcats took an early lead in the first quarter, but the Pilots stormed back with an 8-0 run. Blades helped fuel the run with a lay-up, and Gray capped it with a nice move in the paint, finishing with the left hand to give the home team an 11-7 lead. The Bobcats, who went more than three minutes without a field goal, would recover to take a slight 17-16 advantage after the first quarter.
 
Montana State pushed their lead to 10 points to begin the second, but the Pilots refused to go away, holding the Bobcats without a field goal for several minutes. Van Loo then converted a lay-in, and Gray registered a traditional three-point play to pull the Pilots within 26-21. Ferris ended the MSU drought with an elbow jumper, but the Pilots would score the final four points of the half, which included Van Loo going the length of the court to just beat the buzzer with a lay-up.
 
Van Loo had a team-high eight points at the break, and the Bobcats led 34-30.
 
The Pilots continued to hang around in the third with Blades burying a three-pointer before connecting on a baseline jumper, while getting fouled. That made it a one-point game, and the Pilots would lead moments later when Spencer made a steal and went coast-to-coast for the lay-up that made it 42-41 in Portland's favor. The Bobcats then ended yet another lengthy scoring drought to take a four-point lead into the final frame.
 
The Pilots (.392) out-shot the Bobcats (.379), but Montana State hit one more three-pointer (9-8). The Bobcats also went 17-for-21 at the foul line, while the Pilots shot 14 of 18 from the stripe.
 
The Pilots take the court again next Sunday when they travel to Boise, Idaho, to face the Boise State Broncos on Dec. 18. Tip-off at Taco Bell Arena is set for 1 p.m. (Pacific).