Senior forward Deonte Huff broke free along the right wing and threw down an emphatic one-handed dunk over Bengals star forward junior Matt Stucki to give Portland State its first double-digit lead with less than three minutes gone in the second half. The Vikings (22-9, 15-2) cruised the rest of the way to a 72-61 semifinal victory over Idaho State (12-19, 8-9) in the Big Sky Tournament at the Rose Garden Tuesday night. “This is a great win for us. We have spent all year talking about getting to this point,” said Vikings head coach Ken Bone. “It’s an exciting time for our program.”
Viks win, on to Big Sky Championship
Senior forward Deonte Huff broke free along the right wing and threw down an emphatic one-handed dunk over Bengals star forward junior Matt Stucki to give Portland State its first double-digit lead with less than three minutes gone in the second half.
The Vikings (22-9, 15-2) cruised the rest of the way to a 72-61 semifinal victory over Idaho State (12-19, 8-9) in the Big Sky Tournament at the Rose Garden Tuesday night.
“This is a great win for us. We have spent all year talking about getting to this point,” said Vikings head coach Ken Bone. “It’s an exciting time for our program.”
With the win, the Vikings advance to take on Northern Arizona (21-10, 12-5) in the Big Sky Championship game tonight at the Rose Garden. If the Vikings, the top seed in the tournament, beat the Lumberjacks to claim the conference crown, they earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament and will be one of 65 teams competing for the national title.
In Tuesday night’s game, Portland State point guard Jeremiah Dominguez electrified the crowd early on despite a sluggish first half. The 5-foot-6 junior from Salem drained four three-pointers and turned two steals into five quick points to help the Vikings to a 33-28 halftime advantage.
Dominguez got on the board with his first three-pointer of the night, when he knocked down a long jumper from the top of the key with 14:22 left in the first half. Seemingly on queue, Dominguez snuck inside of Idaho State senior Amorow Morgan to steal the inbound pass and promptly drained another three, this time from the corner.
The quick scoring flurry from Dominguez gave the Vikings their first breathing room of the night, turning their first lead of the night-4-3, after Huff grabbed an offensive rebound, scored and was fouled–into a 10-3 lead in a matter of seconds.
The point guard struck again with less than five minutes left in the half, as Dominguez hit another three-pointer and stole the inbound pass. But this time he settled for a lay-in to give the Vikings a 27-18 lead as he single-handedly kept the Bengals at bay in the first half.
“He does that every game at some point,” Bone said. “He always comes up with a couple of big shots.”
Dominguez’s shots came at opportune times for the Vikings, who were out of character early–missing shots they usually make. Portland State shot a sub-par 37 percent in the first half, and trailed the fourth seeded Bengals for the first three minutes of the game.
“I was just being aggressive, and we were struggling with our shots,” Dominguez said. “I was kind of surprised about their zone.”
Portland State never trailed after Huff gained the Vikings’ first lead in the opening minute of the game, but the Bengals stuck around. Stucki, a second-team All-Big Sky selection, tallied a game-high 22 points for Idaho State.
“It wasn’t the prettiest game. But this time of year there aren’t many pretty games,” Bone said. “Idaho State did a good job of driving through us in the lane and getting shots that dropped.”
Portland State will play in its first Big Sky Championship Game against Northern Arizona tonight. The Lumberjacks advanced after defeating Weber State 75-70 in the early game Tuesday. The Vikings and Lumberjacks meet in the Rose Garden at 6 p.m., and the game will be televised on ESPN2.
