Complete Game Notes and Stats

Portland State takes a brief respite from Big Sky Conference play to host defending Western Athletic Conference champion Boise State in an ESPN BrackeBusters game on Saturday afternoon. When the two teams tip off in an ESPNU televised game at 4:32 p.m., it will mark the first time that ESPN has televised an event from the Peter W. Stott Center.
   
The Vikings come off a thrilling 77-74 win over Northern Colorado on Thursday night. SR G Jeremiah Dominguez hit a double-pump, heavily-pressured three-pointer at the final horn to pull out the Big Sky Conference win.
   
PSU is now 18-9 on the season and has won five straight games at home. The Vikings are 10-1 at home overall this year.
   
Thursday's win was also key in that the Vikings (9-5) pulled within a game of second place in the Big Sky with two remaining to be played. If PSU can move past Montana (10-4) into second place, it would get a first-round bye in the Big Sky Conference Tournament.
   
Next week, Portland State will wrap up the regular season with a home game against Montana State (Feb. 25), then a road game at Eastern Washington (Feb. 28).

PORTLAND STATE VIKINGS (18-9) vs. BOISE STATE BRONCOS (17-8)
Saturday, February 21, 4:32 p.m., Peter W. Stott Center (1,500), Portland, OR
Television: ESPNU ? Play-By-Play: Dave Ryan ? Analyst: Drew Barry
Live Webcast: www.BigSkyTV.org ? Live Stats: www.GoViks.com
Radio: 800 AM KPDQ, www.kpdq-am.com ? Play-by-play: Tom Hewitt ? Pre-game Show: 4 p.m. ? Tip-off: 4:32 p.m.

STORYLINE
Portland State and Boise State will meet for the first time since Nov. 24, 2004 and the first time in the Ken Bone era... BSU leads the all-time series, 12-9. PSU is 6-2 all-time against the Broncos in Portland, but last won a home game against BSU on Dec. 14, 1980... Since PSU reinstated basketball in 1996-97, the schools have met five times, with the Vikings winning once. The game will be the only meeting of the year between the Vikings and a Western Athletic Conference school... Boise State has played three Big Sky teams - all at home - and beaten all three (Idaho State, 92-84, 2ot; Montana State, 74-61; and Eastern Washington, 57-48)... the Broncos are the defending Western Athletic Conference Champion (25-9). Boise State was a number 14 seed in last year's NCAA Tournament and lost an opening round game to Louisville.

THE GAME
Boise State has had an up-and-down past week. The Broncos had their biggest win of the season, a 66-56 victory over nationally-ranked Utah State, last Saturday, ending the Aggies' 19-game winning streak. That was followed by one of its most disappointing losses, a 56-54 home defeat to Idaho on Wednesday before a season-high crowd of 10,246.
   
That leaves Boise State at 17-8 on the season, 7-5 and in fourth in the Western Athletic Conference.
   
Senior forward Mark Sanchez leads Boise State is in scoring (13.0) and rebounding (7.4) while shooting .519 from the field.
   
Sophomore forward Paul Noonan, from Beaverton (OR) High School, averages 10.9 points and has a team-high 44 three-point field goals. He also shoots .848 at the free throw line.
   
Junior forward Ike Okoye has 50 blocked shots to go with 9.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game.
   
Head Coach Greg Graham is in his seventh year at Boise State and has a 125-90 record. His career head coaching record is 143-95.

WELCOME ESPN
Saturday's game marks the first time that ESPN has ever televised a game from the Portland State campus. The ESPN BracketBusters game will be televised live on ESPNU. Dave Ryan (play-by-play) and Drew Barry (analyst) will call the game. The producer is Chuck Scatterday and the director is Jeff Montoni.
   
Last year, the Vikings were on ESPN2 in a game televised from the Rose Garden as they defeated Northern Arizona in the Big Sky Conference Tournament Championship. That was PSU's first-ever appearance in an ESPN televised game.
   
Including Saturday's game, PSU will have been in 36 games televised locally since the return of basketball to the Park Blocks in 1996-97. This will be a school-record eighth televised game this season, and the 14th in the past two seasons. PSU is 12-23 all-time in televised games, 7-4 in televised home games.
   
Portland State is 4-3 in games televised in the Portland area this year, with wins over Gonzaga (77-70), Northern Arizona (92-91, 4OT), Northern Colorado (57-43) and Sacramento State (59-42). Losses have come to Washington (84-83), Hampton (77-71, OT) and Montana State (85-82).

DOMINGUEZ THREE-POINTER AT THE BUZZER DELIVERS A WIN FOR VIKINGS
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 on Thursday. The Vikings, who trailed by 11 at halftime, 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 at the 5:31 mark, Will Figures rallied the Bears, scoring 10 straight points. His layup with 1:20 left 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... the Vikings shot just .393 in the first 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... Tyrell Mara came off the bench to hit all four of his shots and score 12 points with four rebounds... 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 for the game and committed just 10 turnovers. But, they were outrebounded by the smaller Bears, 38-26... PSU is now 10-0 all-time against Northern Colorado, 6-0 in Big Sky Conference games.

LAST-SECOND WINS
SR G Jeremiah Dominguez scored the game-winning points inside of the final 10 seconds of a game for the third time in two seasons as a Viking. His game-winner at the buzzer against Northern Colorado is his first as time expired.
? Last season, J.D. made the game-winning basket against IUPUI with 4.5 seconds remaining at the Top of the World Classic (11/16/07)... Dominguez made two free throws with 5.7 seconds left to lift the Vikings to a 70-68 win over Montana (1/31/08).
? Dominguez' shot marks the third time PSU has scored the game-winning points inside the final 10 seconds this season. JR F Jamie Jones made a short shot in the lane with 10 seconds left to beat Cal State Fullerton, 76-75, on Nov. 23. JR G Dominic Waters made two free throws with 6.5 seconds remaining in the fourth overtime of a 92-91 win over Northern Arizona on Jan. 4.

SWEEPS, AND OTHER HOUSE CLEANING
Portland State swept the season series with Northern Colorado (but has a chance of seeing the Bears again in the playoffs) for its third series sweep this year. The Vikings have also swept Northern Arizona and Sacramento State... on the flip side, PSU has been swept in the season series by Weber State, marking the first time the Vikings have been swept by a Big Sky opponent in two seasons. The last to do so was also Weber State, which won three games over the Vikings in 2006-07 (including a 77-74 Big Sky Tournament semifinal loss at Weber State)... PSU still has a shot at a sweep over Eastern Washington and a split in the series with Montana State... last year, the Vikings had six sweeps and two splits in the season series.

SEEKING 10
Portland State goes after a 10th non-conference win this season when it hosts Boise State on Saturday. The Vikings are 9-4 in non-conference games this season, matching the most non-conference wins by a Viking team since basketball was reinstated for the 1996-97 season. PSU was 9-5 in non-conference games in 2006-07.

PLAYING CONFERENCE CHAMPS
Defending WAC Champion Boise State is Portland State's third defending conference champion opponent of the 2008-09 season. PSU has beaten the previous two defending conference champions: Big West regular season co-champ and Tournament champ Cal State Fullerton; and West Coast Conference regular season champ Gonzaga.

WINNING LINES
? Portland State is 10-1 at home this season, 23-2 at home over the last two seasons.
? With 18 wins this season, PSU has the fourth most wins in a season in school history at the Division I level, and the seventh most wins in a season overall.
? With 60 wins over the past three seasons (19, 23, 18), the Vikings have their best three-season win total in school history.
? Head Coach Ken Bone is 72-48 in four seasons at Portland State, 330-166 in 17 seasons as a collegiate coach. Bone is 40-25 in Big Sky games. He is now 6-0 all-time against Northern Colorado.
? The Vikings are 34-12 since the start of the calendar year of 2008. PSU is 41-19 since the start of the 2007-08 season.
? PSU has gone 91-29 in 120 games at the Stott Center since the 1996-97 season. Including home games at Memorial Coliseum (12-6) and the Rose Garden (19-9), the Vikings are 122-44 at home over 13 seasons.
? During the non-conference schedule, the Vikings beat teams from Conference USA, the West Coast Conference (twice), the Big West Conference, the Mid-American Conference and the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

SHOT CHART
Portland State got back to its strength in the second half of the win over Northern Colorado: shooting. The Vikings were 16-24 from the field (.667), 7-13 from three-point range (.538) and 10-13 at the line (.769), scoring 49 points... in their last three games, the Vikings shot just 66-168 from the field (.393) and 33-53 at the line (.623). In the first half of the game with the Bears, PSU was only 11-28 from the field (.393) and 2-12 from three-point range (.167), scoring 28 points... the Vikings are shooting .452 overall this year after shooting .464 in 2007-08... this season, the Vikings are 13-1 when they shoot even or better than their opponents, 5-8 when their opponents have a better shooting percentage.

THREES WITH EASE
The Portland State Vikings currently rank fifth in the nation in three-point field goals made per game (9.6). The Vikings are leading the Big Sky in three-pointers made for the second season in a row... with 259 three-pointers made this year, PSU is on pace to break the school record of 294 set last season in 33 games... with 695 attempts, PSU is also on pace to break the school record for attempts (749), set last year as well... SR G Jeremiah Dominguez ranks 17th in the nation in three-point percentage and 47th in three-pointers made.

A FINE POINT
SR G Jeremiah Dominguez leads the Vikings in scoring once again after a 24-point performance at Weber State last Saturday. Dominguez scored just eight against Northern Colorado, but had the big three-pointer at the buzzer to win the game. He now averages 12.1 points per game... JD's highlights this year:
? Dominguez leads the team in assists (2.92), steals (1.84) and three-point field goals made (70) while shooting .424 from long range. Dominguez leads the Big Sky Conference in three-point field goals made (2.80) and ranks second in steals... he handed out a career-high 11 assists in a win over Northern Arizona (2/5)... Dominguez has a team-high six 20-point games this year.
? Dominguez ranks third in career steals at Portland State (108) and recently reached 200 career assists in just two seasons... he ranks fourth all-time in three-point field goals made and second in three-point percentage despite playing just two seasons.

THE RETURN OF BASKETBALL JONES
JR F Jamie Jones had seen his impact lessen in recent weeks, and had played just 16 minutes in the last three games due to an ankle injury. But, Jones returned to the starting lineup on Thursday and made a huge difference for the Vikings. Jones hit 7-9 shots from the field and 5-6 at the line for 19 points. He also blocked three shots, including one in the final minute as Northern Colorado was trying to take the lead... Jones' 19 points were most since scoring a season-high 21 against Cal State Fullerton on Nov. 23. His 23 minutes played were the most since playing 27 minutes at Baylor on Dec. 29... for the year, Jones averages 8.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and shoots .571 from the field in just under 20 minutes a game. He also has a team-high 24 blocked shots.