Complete notes and stats in pdf

The Portland State Vikings will try to make it back-to-back wins over the Sacramento State Hornets this Thursday when they travel to The Hornets Nest. The Vikings beat Sac State, 86-80, at the Stott Center last Saturday and, in a scheduling quirk, meet them again this week. Game time is 7:05 p.m. It airs on Freedom 970 AM and www.970.am with the pregame show at 6:30 p.m.
   
Portland State (11-10, 4-5) stands in fifth place in the Big Sky Conference, while Sacramento State (5-16, 2-8) is in ninth. PSU has won eight straight games over the Hornets, including the last three times in Sacramento. However, the Vikings will need to improve on a 1-7 road record to extend their streak over the Hornets. Sacramento State is 5-5 at home this year, winning their last two in the Hornets Nest.
   
PSU will again play without JR F Chehales Tapscott (knee). JR C Nate Lozeau (ankle) hopes to get back to practice this week.  Whether he is available for Thursday's game is in question. Lozeau has missed the last four games, while Tapscott has missed three in a row.
   
The Vikings travel to Northern Colorado for a Saturday game, scheduled for a 6:05 p.m. PT tip off. Northern Colorado is 11-8 this year, 7-1 and in second place in the Big Sky. The Bears defeated the Vikings, 79-66, in the Stott Center on Dec. 29 in the Big Sky opener. UNC is a perfect 7-0 at home this year and will host Eastern Washington on Thursday.

PORTLAND STATE VIKINGS (11-10, 4-5) vs. SACRAMENTO STATE HORNETS (5-16, 2-8)
Thursday, February 3, 2011, 7:05 p.m. @ The Hornets Nest (1,200), Sacramento, CA
Television: None
Radio: Freedom 970 AM, www.970.am • Play-by-play: Tom Hewitt • Pregame Show: 6:30 p.m.
Live Video Stream: www.b2tv.com • Live Stats: www.GoViks.com
All-Time Series: PSU leads 22-9 • PSU in Sacramento: 7-8
Big Sky Series: PSU leads 21-8 • PSU in Sacramento: 7-7

STORYLINES
• The series: Portland State holds a 22-9 advantage in the all-time series, and 21-8 lead in the Big Sky series... PSU will be going for its eighth season series sweep in 15 seasons... the Vikings are 7-8 against the Hornets in Sacramento... PSU has won the last eight meetings between the teams, including three straight in Sacramento. Last year, the Vikings won 76-62 in Sacramento.
• Jan. 29: Behind a career-high 29 points from Tree Thomas, the Vikings beat Sacramento State, 86-80, at the Stott Center. Charles Odum and Melvin Jones each had 17 points as the Vikings hit 12 three-pointers in the game... Sultan Toles-Bey had 18 points, six rebounds and six assists for the Hornets. Walter Jackson posted 16 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots.... PSU led the entire game, including a double-digit advantage until the closing moments.
• The Hornets: Sacramento State was 9-21 last season, 3-13 and ninth in the Big Sky Conference... two starters and three letterwinners return from that team... Head Coach Brian Katz is in his third year at Sacramento State. He has a 16-64 record. Katz is 0-5 all-time against Portland State.
• This year: The Hornets have been a hard-luck team again, going 5-16 with four overtime losses. Sacramento State had lost nine in a row, but won two in a row before losing to the Vikings last week... Sacramento State ranks eighth in the league in scoring at 63.3 points per game while shooting .411 from the field, .311 from three-point range and .687 at the line... SR G Sultan Toles-Bey is the Hornets' top player, leading the Big Sky in minutes played at 36.9 per game. He scores 12.6 points per game and averages 4.7 assists per game. Toles-Bey also leads the team in three-pointers (39) and steals (34)... John Dickson averages 11.1 points and 4.1 rebounds... Alpha N'Diaye leads the team with 5.8 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.

VIKINGS GET LOYOLA MARYMOUNT IN ESPN BRACKETBUSTER
ESPN announced its annual BracketBuster games today, and Portland State has been selected to host Loyola Marymount (8-13, 1-6) of the West Coast Conference on Feb. 19. Eleven games will be televised by ESPN, but the PSU/LMU game will NOT be televised. The Vikings will play a return game with the Lions within the next two seasons.
   
PSU is 1-1 against WCC teams this year, beating Pepperdine and losing to Portland. The Vikings are 3-2 against WCC teams in Head Coach Tyler Geving's two seasons. PSU is 6-2 against the WCC dating back to the start of the 2007-08 season, including 3-1 vs. Portland, 2-0 vs. Pepperdine, 1-0 vs. Gonzaga and 0-1 vs. Saint Mary's. Wins over #7 Gonzaga (2008-09) and #25 Portland (2009-10) came against nationally-ranked teams.
   
Portland State leads the all-time series with Loyola Marymount, 2-1 (1-0 in Portland), but the teams have not met since the 2001-02 season.
   
Portland State will be playing its fifth ESPN BracketBuster game in the last seven seasons. The Vikings are 1-3 in the previous four with the home team winning every game. PSU is 2-2 in the return games.
   
Previous BracketBuster games:
Feb. 19, 2005: at Middle Tennessee State 83, Portland State 62
Feb. 17, 2007: at Cal Poly 92, Portland State 87
Feb. 23, 2008: at Cal State Fullerton 85, Portland State 69
Feb. 21, 2009: at Portland State 93, Boise State 81

INJURY BATTLE CONTINUES FOR VIKING TEAM
Nobody is going to feel sorry for the Vikings but they continue to fight an unending battle with injuries. The latest Vikings to go down are JR C Nate Lozeau and JR F Chehales Tapscott. The loss of a pair of inside players has left the Vikings particularly thin in the post. So far this year, PSU has suited up just nine players in 12 of 21 games. The Vikings have lost 30 player games to injury this season.
   
Portland State hopes to have Lozeau back at some point this week. The 6-10 post suffered a severe left ankle sprain at Montana on Jan. 15 and has missed the last four games. He may be available for practice and a few minutes of action this week.
   
Tapscott injured his right knee at the end of the Jan. 20 win over Weber State. He had cartilage damage and underwent surgery last Wednesday. Tapscott, who has averaged 11.7 points and 8.2 rebounds, may be able to return in mid-February.
   
PSU was without SR F Phil Nelson for the first 14 games of the season (after losing him for the last 12 of last year) as he recovered from a twice broken foot. Nelson has played in the last seven games, coming off the bench, but is still trying to get in game shape. He had his best game with eight points, nine rebounds, two assists and two steals in the win over Sacramento State.
   
JR G Terry Coleman has struggled with ankle and lower leg injuries all year and has missed nine games as a result.

VIKING HEAD COACH TYLER GEVING
Tyler Geving is in his second season as Head Coach and sixth season overall with the Portland State program. Geving has a 24-29 record with the Vikings. He was 13-19 in 2009-10 and led PSU to the Big Sky Tournament semifinals. Geving is a 1996 graduate of Central Washington and has been in collegiate coaching for 16 years.
   
Geving is 3-0 against Sacramento State, 1-2 against Northern Colorado. He is 12-15 all-time against Big Sky Conference opponents. Geving is 12-14 all-time in non-conference games.
   
The second-year Head Coach is assisted by Andy McClouskey (1st year, Oregon State, 1982), Eric Harper (6th year, Central Washington, 1995) and Anthony Owens (2nd year, Great Falls, 2006). Former Viking player Mickey Polis is the Director of Operations (2nd year, Portland State, 2009).

GAME WEEK ACTIVITIES
VIKINGS ON RADIO: All Portland State basketball games can be heard on Freedom 970 AM and www.970.am. The Viking Pregame Show begins one-half hour prior to tipoff with Tom Hewitt calling all the action.
INTERNET STREAMING: Live streaming video of all Portland State home and Big Sky Conference games can be seen free at www.b2TV.com. Live stats for Portland State home games are at www.GoViks.com.

MELVIN JONES WILL BE FEATURED IN “AMERICAN STORY”
SR G Melvin Jones is the subject of what will be a nationally-recognized feature on NBC's Today Show. Reporter Bob Dotson, who produces a regular feature called “American Story” on The Today Show, was in town earlier in January to interview Melvin, his family and their unique story. The feature will appear on the Today Show on a date to be announced, likely one day during the week of January 31.
   
Jones has already been featured on the front page of the Seattle Times and in the Portland Tribune for his inspiring story. Jones has risen up from a high school student on a path to failure to an Academic All-Conference level student at Portland State while excelling in the sport of basketball. He has done so with the assistance of his adoptive mother, Jennifer Annable, former high school coach, Kasey Poirrer, and their family.

TREE AND THE THREE - A GOOD COMBINATION: Portland State had its highest scoring output in 13 games in the 86-80 win over Sacramento State. The winning combination was a steady diet of three-pointers (12, the second-most made in a game this year) and SR F Tree Thomas (29 points, a career-high). It was the Vikings highest scoring Big Sky game and fourth-highest scoring game overall this year.

A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE: Despite losing four of five games recently, the 11-10 Vikings are two games ahead of last year's 21-game pace (9-12). PSU was 13-19 overall last season. 

NO GIVEAWAYS HERE: Moving JR G Charles Odum into the starting lineup has meant moving SR G Melvin Jones over to the point from his more comfortable shooting-guard role. Jones has responded by committing just seven turnovers in 10 games... the Viking team has committed just 109 turnovers in those games (10.9). PSU had been averaging 15.3 turnovers per game prior to that.

A NEED FOR GUEDE: With JR F Chehales Tapscott out indefinitely, SR F Paul Guede becomes a key player for the Vikings. In three games in the starting lineup, Guede has totaled 15 points, 18 rebounds and five steals. That is 5.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game. In his 18 previous games off the bench, Guede was averaging 3.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 0.9 steals.

GIVING HIS BIG SKY BEST: JR G Charles Odum has been red-hot lately and tearing up the Big Sky. In nine Big Sky games, Odum averages a team-best 17.0 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists. He is shooting .620 from the field, .636 from three-point range and .694 at the line in Big Sky games. Odum has led the team in scoring five times and twice set a new career-high. Most recently, Odum scored a career-high 24 at Montana (1/15), and grabbed a career-high nine rebounds against Northern Arizona (1/22)... Odum was averaging 12.7 points in non-conference games... Odum now averages a team-leading 14.5 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists, shoots .545 from the field, .471 from three-point range and .735 at the line for the season.

MELVIN'S LINE: FIVE THREES... AND A DUNK: SR G Melvin Jones put up one of his best shooting lines in two seasons as a Viking in the win over Sacramento State. He made 6-9 field goals, including 5-7 from three-point range. The shot that will be most remembered though was the 5-10 guard's driving dunk after the Hornets had closed the Viking lead to five inside the final minute... Jones is averaging 11.4 points, 2.5 assists. He leads the team with 50 three-point field goals and an .816 free throw percentage... in 10 games at point guard, Jones has just seven turnovers.

TOWERING TREE: SR F Tree Thomas went for a career-high 29 points in the Vikings' win over Sacramento State. He made 9-16 from the field and 11-13 at the line. The last time a Viking scored more points was 49 games ago (32 by Dominic Waters on Nov. 21, 2009 against Cal Poly)... Thomas has scored 78 points (26-46 FG) in his last five games and raised his scoring average to 9.3 per game this year. Thomas is now shooting .500 from the field and .793 at the line. He averages 11.7 points and shoots .554 in Big Sky Conference games.

MOST IMPROVED: The play of SO G Chris Harriel makes him the easy choice for Most Improved Viking this season. While Coach Tyler Geving knew his talented sophomore would be better, he probably didn't count on quite this much production. Harriel has already set three new career scoring highs (now 25) and three new career rebounding highs (now 12). Harriel averages 14.5 points per game while averaging 5.4 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.6 steals... he has slumped a bit in the last five games, averaging just 9.0 points and shooting 29% from the field.

HALF-NELSON: SR F Phil Nelson had his best game this season since returning from injury in the win over Sacramento State. Nelson scored eight points, grabbed a career-high nine rebounds and added two assists, two steals and blocked a shot. Prior to that game, Nelson had averaged 3.8 points and 2.5 rebounds in six games... Nelson's long-awaited return came on Jan. 8 against Eastern Washington. Nelson had missed 26 straight games after breaking his left foot twice. Nelson broke his foot late last January, missing the final 12 games of the season. He had been averaging 12.9 points and had 48 three-point field goals through 20 games. Nelson reinjured the foot on Nov. 8 and missed the first 14 games of this year. PSU went 13-13 in the 26 games Nelson had missed since Jan. 30... Nelson began practicing on Jan. 6, and is still trying to improve his game condition... prior to coming off the bench in the previous seven games, Nelson had started the previous 53 games off his Viking career. PSU is 31-22 in those games and 34-26 overall in games he plays.

GREAT TAP-SCOTT!: A knee injury for JR F Chehales Tapscott has put his season on hold for the time being, and the Vikings will now miss their leading rebounder and shot-blocker indefinitely. The former NWAACC Player of the Year from Clackamas CC is averaging 11.7 points, a team-high 8.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game. He is shooting .463 from the field and has 13 blocked shots.

A SIMPLE ANALYSIS: Portland State is 7-1 when outshooting opponents, 6-1 when outrebounding or even in rebounds with opponents... the Vikings are 0-7 when failing to score at least 69 points, and 7-0 when scoring 79 points or more.

HOT:
• JR G Charles Odum is shooting .620 from the field, .636 from three-point range and averaging 17.0 points in Big Sky Conference games.
• SR G Melvin Jones has committed just seven turnovers in 10 games as the starting point guard. Portland State has averaged 10.9 turnovers in those games, after averaging 15.3 in the first 11 games.
• Tree Thomas has averaged 15.6 points in his last five games, hitting 26-46 shots (.565) and 26-34 free throws (.765).

NOT:
• The training room: PSU has played 12 of its 21 games with just nine players suited up due to injury.
• PSU is 1-7 on the road this year.
• SO G Chris Harriel has averaged just 9.0 points in the last five games, shooting 16-55 (.291). He had been averaging 16.2 points and shooting .426 prior to that.