Falling down

Down by two points with 30 seconds left, the Portland State men’s basketball team faced two possible outcomes on Friday night: Either raise the hopes of a postseason appearance with a last-minute win, or watch the chances at the playoffs slip away by conceding yet another loss.

Unfortunately, the Vikings never saw a lead in their 81–76 loss to Montana, and they followed that disappointment with another—losing to Montana State, 79–71, on Saturday. Portland State has lost three straight, and for the first time in 30 calendar years, the Vikings have lost four consecutive home games.

“You have to be able to win your home games—but we have bigger issues,” head coach Tyler Geving said. “We’ve got to get our team right and get better.”

Failing to sustain a lead in either game over the weekend, Portland State (10–15, 5–7 Big Sky) continues to dig itself into holes early on and not tighten up the defense in the closing minutes.

On Friday, the Griz took control early on and never looked back. They pulled ahead to 11–2 in the first five minutes of action and never allowed Portland State the lead. Partially due to the frustration of falling behind so quickly, the Vikings shot a lowly .360 in the first half and finished with .481 shooting for the night.

Portland State allowed Grizzlies guard Anthony Johnson to drop 22 points in addition to four assists and two steals. The Vikings, however, were not to be outdone—senior forward Jamie Jones chalked 26 points and 12 rebounds to earn his league-leading seventh double-double.

“Unfortunately, sometimes if we’re not making shots it kind of affects our defense,” Geving said. “It just hurts.”

Heading into Saturday, Portland State appeared to be the favorite against a Montana State team that had lost four of its last five games.

With the game going back and forth in the beginning, Portland State began to fall behind midway through the first half and let the Bobcats’ lead grow to 13 points going into the break. The Vikings were unable to hit shots with any consistency toward the end and never got closer than seven, leaving little doubt that Montana State would win.

The PSU defense was unable to contain forward Bobby Howard, who led all scorers with 22 points on nine of 14 shooting and was perfect from the charity stripe. Despite an impressive 21 points from senior guard Dominic Waters, only one other PSU player scored double digits on the night.

Portland State’s reliance on the three-point shot proved problematic—they sank only nine of 30 three-point attempts. Junior guard Melvin Jones, normally a .400 shooter, was unable to make a
nything from downtown and went two of 12 on the night.

“The frustrating thing is a lot of times we had great looks,” Geving said. “I mean, Melvin Jones is a good shooter and he’s zero for five. Guys aren’t trying to miss. If you don’t make it, you don’t make it.”

With four games remaining in the season, the Vikings need to win at least one more game or have Eastern Washington lose the remaining games on its schedule to guarantee a spot in the postseason tournament.

Scores by period

Friday                 1st    2nd    Final
Montana              37    44       81
Portland State     27    49       76

Saturday
Montana State     40    39    79
Portland State      27    44    71