Box Score

Laramie, WY - A seven-minute, second-half scoring drought sealed Portland State's fate as it lost to host Wyoming, 65-51, on the first day of the Jim Thorpe Classic.

It was PSU's poorest offensive performance of the season, as the Vikings also committed 18 turnovers for 22 Wyoming points.

Wyoming improved to 4-1 on the year, 4-0 at home, while the Vikings dropped to 2-2, 0-2 on the road.

The Vikings got off to a bad start, hitting just two of their first 10 shots. At that point, PSU trailed 20-8 with 8:55 to go in the first half. Wyoming's largest lead of the half was a 35-21 advantage with 43 seconds left.

Fortunately, PSU made eight of its last 11 shots in the half, led by Michael Harthun. The junior guard had nine points at halftime, and the Vikings trailed 35-26 at the break.

After a quick start to the second half, the Vikings gave up 11 straight points to Wyoming and found themselves down 49-32 when Luke Martinez hit a three-pointer with 16:07 to play.

Nate Lozeau made a layup with 13:58 left closing it to 49-38. But, PSU went cold from there, failing to score for the next seven minutes and committing five turnovers. That was all the Cowboys needed to seal up their fourth win of the season, growing the lead to as many as 20 points.

"Being down nine at the half, as bad as we played, I wasn't too disappointed," said Viking Coach Tyler Geving. "We just couldn't get anything going (offensively) all night. They are a great defensive team.

"We are just turning the ball over too much. You can't win if you have 18 turnovers."

Lozeau led the Vikings with 11 points and four rebounds. Chehales Tapscott scored eight points with five rebounds. Harthun finished with nine points.

Adam Waddell led four Cowboys in double figures with 15 points. Wyoming shot .509 from the field and had only eight turnovers.

GAME NOTES: Nate Lozeau is the only Viking to score in double figures all four games this year… PSU is 15-37 all-time against current members of the Mountain West Conference…  Portland State was playing in the first of three games over three days in Laramie. The Vikings play Louisiana Tech of the Western Athletic Conference on Saturday (3:30 p.m. PT) and Maryland-Eastern Shore of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference on Sunday (2:30 p.m. PT). Both games can be heard on Freedom 970 AM and www.freedom970.com.