Portland, OR - With two defenders on him, Jeremiah Dominguez swished a double-clutch three-point field goal at the final buzzer to salvage a 77-74 Portland State win over Northern Colorado at the Stott Center.
The Vikings, who trailed most of the game, and by as many as 12 in the first half, rallied back to get an important league win. The Vikings scored 49 points in the second half and finally got the lead, 56-55, with 9:37 left in the game on a Jamie Jones jump shot. From there, PSU held the slimmest of margins throughout the closing moments.
With the Vikings ahead 67-64, Will Figures rallied the Bears, scoring 10 straight points. His layup at the 1:20 mark of the game tied it at 74. Following a PSU miss on the ensuing possession, the Bears had the ball back inside the final minute.
Figures attempted a driving shot that was blocked Jones. The Bears got the offensive rebound, but Figures missed another jumper with 34 seconds left.
Dominic Waters rebounded and PSU set up a final play without calling a timeout. The ball got to Dominguez with less than 10 seconds left but he struggled to get open. Finally, shooting right in front of the PSU bench, he leaned left, double-pumped and let it fly. The ball swished as the horn sounded, and the Vikings pulled off an improbable Big Sky Conference win.
Northern Colorado almost beat the Vikings at their own game as the Bears started four guards, spread the floor and got hot shooting three-pointers. UNC made 7-11 from long range in the first half in building a 39-28 lead.
The Vikings shot just .393 in the half, including only 2-12 from three-point range.
The second half was a different story though, as PSU made 16-24 shots (.667), and 7-13 from three-point range, including Dominguez's clincher. It was an unlikely basket for the senior guard as he had made just 1-8 from long range prior to that.
Jones provided a much-needed and recently-missed inside presence in the game, hitting 7-9 from the field and totaling 19 points with three blocked shots. Jones was making his first start after playing just 16 minutes in the previous three games due to an ankle injury.
"Jamie did a great job. It was sweet to see him out there playing healthy with a little bit of bounce in his step," said Viking Coach Ken Bone. "I was also really proud of Tyrell Mara and Kyle Coston. That position has really been struggling, and those guys did a good job."
Mara came off the bench to hit all four of his shots and score 12 points with four rebounds. Coston had 10 points on 3-4 from the field and 4-5 at the line.
The win improved the Viking record to 9-5 in the Big Sky and pulled them within one game of second-place Montana (10-4), which lost to Weber State on Thursday. PSU is 18-9 overall this year and has won five straight at home.
PSU shot .519 overall for the game and committed just 10 turnovers. But, they were outrebounded by the smaller Bears, 38-26.
Northern Colorado got a tremendous effort from Figures, who had a game-high 24 points, including 5-7 from three-point range. The Bears dropped to 12-16 overall, 6-7 in the Big Sky and sixth place.
GAME NOTES: The Vikings scored 20 points off 15 UNC turnovers... PSU is now 10-0 all-time against Northern Colorado, 6-0 in Big Sky Conference games... the Vikings are 10-1 at home this year... Portland State will step out of conference on Saturday and host defending Western Athletic Conference Champion Boise State in an ESPN BracketBusters game. Tip-off for that game is 4:32 p.m. It can be seen on ESPNU, and heard on 800 AM KPDQ.
