Viks clinch piece of conference title

Despite junior point guard Jeremiah Dominguez being unable to finish the game due to illness, the Vikings still defeated Northern Colorado (11-15, 4-9 BSC) 88-79 Wednesday night to clinch at least a share of the Big Sky regular-season title.

With Portland State’s ninth-straight victory now wrapped up, the only detail left to be worked out is whether the Vikings (18-8, 11-2 BSC) will host the Big Sky Conference Tournament March 11-12 at the Rose Garden.

Weber State (12-12, 7-5 BSC) and Montana State (15-10, 7-5 BSC) are both still statistically alive in the race to host the tournament, but would need the Vikings to lose their final three conference games just to force a tie.

Losing one, let alone all three of their final conference games would be out of character for the Vikings. Since Jan. 1, Portland State is 11-1 and has defeated every team in the Big Sky except for Eastern Washington (11-17, 6-8 BSC), whom they face again in the regular season finale on March 4.

After the win over the Bears, which set a new school record for consecutive wins versus Division 1 competition and secured the Vikings a first place finish in the Big Sky, head coach Ken Bone was business as usual when he addressed his team.

“I said congratulations and that’s about it,” Bone said of his post-game remarks. “Let’s go get some more wins.”

Getting the win over the Bears proved to be more difficult than originally expected. The Vikings began the game with a hot stroke from the outside, scoring their first 12 points from beyond the arc to lead by as many 16 points.

Dominguez, who leads the Vikings in scoring, tallied six of his nine points in the first half. Although the point guard had a game-high seven assists, he was out of sorts most of the night, missing several routine shots near the basket.

“Jeremiah was so sick yesterday he didn’t even practice,” Bone said. “He was feeling light-headed and faint and had to ask to come out in the last few minutes.”

With Dominguez ailing, sophomore forward Kyle Coston picked up the scoring slack and torched the Bears for 19 points on 6 of 7 shootings, including a perfect 5 of 5 from outside the three-point line.

After Northern Colorado cut the lead to 71-67 with less than four minutes to go in the second half, Coston came through in the clutch, answering with a three to help keep the Bears at bay.

“[Coston] was good. He was really good,” Bone said. “When he shot it, he knew it was going in. And he shot with confidence.”

Coston was not alone atop the Vikings’ top scorers list. Senior center Scott Morrison pounded the Bears down low and hit 9 of 16 free throws on his way to 19 points, and senior forward Deonte Huff scored from all areas of the floor as he also tallied 19 points.

Sophomore forward Julius Thomas returned to the line-up after missing six games with a broken rib and scored two points on a vicious two-handed tip-dunk.

Portland State plays Cal State Fullerton at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in an ESPNU BracketBuster matchup.