Tale of two halves

There are two words that head coach Ken Bone hopes will always captivate the style that his teams play with: energy and effort.

Although those words were written on the Vikings locker room chalkboard before the game, and are themes that are harped on by Bone and his staff at every practice, the Vikings played with tremendous energy and effort, at least in the second half, and ran away from Eastern Washington for a 83-61 win. 

After struggling at times to put pressure on Eastern Washington, an erratic first half ended with the Vikings trailing, 33-32. The Vikings were just four of 14 from beyond the arc, trailed the rebounding battle and had nine turnovers.

“We knew we had to play harder,” said junior wing Phil Nelson, who scored 17 of his 22 points in the second half. “We had to play with more energy and effort.”

An animated Bone encouraged the squad, who entered Saturday’s game with a six-day layoff, to play aggressively and with the kind of energy that has set them apart from the rest of the Big Sky Conference over the past two seasons.

Bone’s squad responded immediately.

In the first 91 seconds of the second half Portland State scored 10 unanswered points on consecutive three-pointers by Nelson and a steal and fast-break, spinning layup by senior guard Andre Murray that drew a flagrant foul and resulted in a four-point play.

 “It didn’t feel like a flagrant, but that’s how the refs called it,” said Murray after the game, flashing a wry smile.

Murray finished with 15 points after hitting six of 10 shots from the field. He also accounted for two of the 10 steals that the Vikings grabbed away from Eastern Washington and seemed to be the catalyst for helping Portland State convert those turnovers into points as Bone’s squad scored 31 points off of 19 Eagles turnovers.

“Our guys felt we played well in the first half, they just didn’t hit the shots,” Bone said. “But when we play with energy, we play better.”   

After matching their first-half point total of 32 points just nine minutes and 50 seconds through the second half the Vikings would not relinquish their lead to the Eagles, who looked confused and overmatched throughout the final 20 minutes.

In addition to the impressive defensive performance and sharpshooting by Murray and Nelson, Portland State also shared the ball more efficiently than they had of late, accounting for 20 total assists. That total was the squad’s most since defeating Lewis and Clark on Dec. 9

“The team did share the ball tonight,” Bone said. “That was huge.”

Dominic Waters and Tyrell Mara led the Vikings with four assists apiece.

Mara, a junior forward who had struggled to find his shooting touch during the first part of the season, added 12 points of his own, continuing a string of consistent play from the Canadian on both ends of the court. 

The victory keeps the Vikings atop the Big Sky Conference standings, although now the squad is tied with Weber State for first place. The Wildcats defeated Portland State at the Stott Center on Jan. 8.

Bone’s squad will take to the road for four of their next six games, including this weekend’s trip to Montana and a pair of tough games in two weeks at Weber State and Idaho State.

The head coach knows the imperative nature of getting road wins, a task that the Vikings have excelled at lately as the team has reeled off nine straight conference road wins going back to last season.

“It’s tough to win on the road, it doesn’t matter where you are,” Bone said. “But our guys have responded and have been able to win on the road.”