PORTLAND STATE AT SOUTHERN UTAH
Thursday, January 24, 6 p.m. PT • Centrum Arena (5,300), Cedar City, UT

PORTLAND STATE: 5-10 • Big Sky: 3-5 • Home: 5-2 • Road: 0-8
SOUTHERN UTAH: 5-11 • Big Sky: 3-4 • Home: 4-3 • Road: 1-8

Television: None
Radio: Freedom 970 AM, www.freedom970.com • Play-by-play: Tom Hewitt • Pregame Show: 5:30 p.m. PT
Live Video: www.BigSkyTV.org 
Live Stats: http://www.suutbirds.com/liveStats/liveStats.dbml?

All-Time Series: PSU leads 1-0 • PSU in Cedar City: 0-0
Big Sky Series: first meeting
Last Year: DNP

THE OPENING TIP
The long road of January continues for the Portland State Vikings as they play their third straight and fifth in seven games on the road this Thursday. So far, the Vikings have been to Montana, Colorado and North Dakota. Now they journey to the Beehive State to take on Southern Utah in a first-ever Big Sky Conference meeting. Game time is 6:05 p.m. PT in Cedar City as the two teams, tied for fifth in the league standings, square off for the first time in 43 years.

The Vikings are trying to survive a four-game road stretch that concludes at Eastern Washington next Monday. After that, PSU plays seven of its next nine games in the friendly atmosphere of the Peter W. Stott Center. 

Portland State, 5-10 on the season and 3-5 in the Big Sky, has found a rough road this season where they are 0-8, including two losses last week at Northern Colorado (67-50) and North Dakota (85-76). Despite the losses, the Vikings dropped only from a tie for third to a tie for fifth in the Big Sky Conference's oppressively tight standings. Only one game separates the teams in places three through ten. PSU is only one game out of third place and also just one game out of last place in the league standings.

Southern Utah stands at 5-11 overall, 3-4 in the Big Sky. The Thunderbirds, losers of their last four contests, play a Monday night game at Montana State prior to facing Portland State. SUU had started league play at 3-0. The T-Birds will bring a 4-3 home mark into Thursday's game with the Viks.

The game airs on Freedom 970 AM, www.freedom970.com, and a live video stream is available at www.BigSkyTV.org.

WILL HE OR WON'T HE?: Portland State SR F Renado Parker remains a question mark for this week's game at Southern Utah. The Vikings' leading scorer has been slowed by a troublesome sprained ankle for weeks. He played only three minutes at Northern Colorado and did not play at North Dakota last week.

BIG SKY BOG DOWN: Portland State's two losses last week were not devastating as the Vikings dropped only from a four-way tie for third place (3-3) to a five-way tie for fifth place (3-5) in the 11-team league. PSU's season record of 5-10 is exactly in the middle of the conference standings at sixth-best.

The Big Sky is a two-horse race with Montana and Weber State both standing at 8-0 and tied for first. The next best record is North Dakota's 4-4 in third place. Remarkably, eight of the 11 teams have losing conference records, and there is just a one-game gap between teams three through 10 (4-4 to 3-5). In that group, only Sacramento State has a .500 season record (8-8). Just as remarkably, the third- through 11th-place teams are a combined 10-66 on the road, 12-76 including neutral site games. So, though the Vikings are 0-8 on the road this year, they aren't much different than most of the teams in the league. 

THE COACHES: Portland State Head Coach Tyler Geving has a 49-60 record in his fourth season. Geving has a 27-33 Big Sky Conference record and has never faced Southern Utah... Southern Utah is led by first-year Head Coach Nick Robinson.

A LONG, LONG TIME AGO...: ...was the last time Portland State and Southern Utah played in a basketball game. It was Dec. 20, 1969 and the Vikings beat the Thunderbirds, 107-93, in Portland. That was the only meeting in history between the schools - more than 43 years ago.

THE THUNDERBIRDS: Southern Utah is a first-year member of the Big Sky Conference. SUU previously played in the Summit League... the Thunderbirds were 14-17 last season, 8-10 in the Summit, placing sixth... two starters and 10 letterwinners return from that team... guards Jackson Stevenett and Damon Heuir lead the T-Birds in scoring this year. Stevenett averages 15.7 points - second in the Big Sky - and a team-high 6.2 rebounds. Heuir averages 15.0 points with team-highs of 32 three-point field goals and 40 assists... Jayson Cheeseman is tied for the league lead in blocked (2.3 per game) and Southern Utah also has the most as a team with 86... the Thunderbirds rank last in turnovers per game (18.1), turnover margin (-5.6) and steals (4.9).

COMING UP: Portland State's four-game road trip concludes next Monday at Eastern Washington. Following that game, PSU plays seven of its next nine games at home, starting with a Jan. 31 game against Montana.

FAST BREAKS

WINNING LINES
• Portland State is 5-10 this season. The Vikings are 5-2 at home, 0-8 on the road.
• PSU has won nine of 11 at home dating to last season.
• The Vikings have lost their last 10 road games dating to last season.
Big Sky Battles
• Portland State is 135-135 all-time in all Big Sky Conference games, including the tournament (8-8).
• PSU is 91-40 in home games, 41-91 in road games and 3-4 in neutral site games.
• PSU is 50-38 in Big Sky games since the start of the 2007-08 season, 56-40 including tournament games.

HOT SHOTS: 
• SR G Michael Harthun posted a season-high 19 points at North Dakota, shooting 6-8 from the field, 4-4 from three-point range and 3-3 at the line. He has made 12-16 three-pointers (.750) in the last four games... in Big Sky games, Harthun is 18-31 on three-pointers (.581) to lead the league in percentage.
• SR PG Lateef McMullan has 51 assists and only 17 turnovers in the last 11 games, a 3/1 ratio.
• After averaging 1.3 points with five blocked shots in his first 12 games, JR C Brandon Cataldo is averaging 6.2 points and has seven blocked shots in the last four games. He is 11-17 shooting in those games (.647).
• SO G Gary Winston is 6-7 from three-point range in the last three games.
• SR G Martin Whitmore had a career-high six rebounds at Northern Colorado.
• Portland State ranks 33rd in the nation in free throw shooting (.744) and 19th in three-point shooting (.387) among 345 Division I schools.
• The Vikings shoot .523 from the field, .495 from three-point range, in the Stott Center.

NOT SO HOT: 
• PSU shot a season-low .339 at Northern Colorado (19-56), including 5-18 from three-point distance (.278), and scored a season-low 50 points. This after shooting .532 in the previous week's two wins, including 20-31 (.645) from three-point distance.
• As a team, the Vikings shoot .400 on the road, .317 from three-point range (but shot .500/.563 at North Dakota).
• After shooting 24-45 (.533) in his first six games, SO G Dre Winston is 14-52 (.269) over the last nine.
• Portland State is 0-8 on the road this season.

THIS INJURY HURTS (OF COURSE): SR F Renado Parker has been troubled by a nagging ankle injury for most of the season. He has been unable to practice for most of the last two weeks. He tried to play on Thursday at Northern Colorado, but came out after only three minutes. Then, he missed the game at North Dakota. The injury certainly hurts Parker, and it definitely hurt the Viking offense at UNC as their leading scorer was greatly missed in the poorest offensive outing of the year. Parker's status for Thursday's game at Southern Utah is uncertain.

ROUGH ROAD: Portland State put in a quality effort at North Dakota, shooting .500 from the field, .563 from three-point range and out-rebounding UND, 28-24, but still lost 85-76.  PSU's 0-8 road record is a disappointment, but the Vikings still have six games on the road during the regular season to make amends. This year's road games have been against some formidable opponents, including nationally-ranked Oklahoma State and Oregon, Portland and Loyola Marymount of the West Coast Conference, and Montana and Montana State of the Big Sky... PSU was 7-12 on the road last season. 

ALL ABOUT THE SHOOTING: The Vikings have been a good-shooting home team, and a bad-shooting road team this season. The difference in home and road shooting statistics for the Vikings mirrors Portland State's home (5-2) and road (0-8) records. The Vikings shoot .523 from the field and .495 from three-point range at home. On the road, they shoot just .400 from the field and .317 from three-point range. The free throw shooting numbers are consistent at .746 at home and .743 on the road... last week at Northern Colorado, the Vikings shot a season-low .339 from the field in a 67-50 loss... they bounced back with their best road shooting performance of the year with a .500 mark (.563 3-pt FG) at North Dakota, but still lost... not surprisingly, PSU has shot .565, .492, .532, .561 and .500 in its five wins this season... only once have they shot better than .456 in a loss.

THE DEFENSE SHOULD NOT REST: Head Coach Tyler Geving touted an improved defensive team for 2012-13, and that may come to fruition. A strong effort against Idaho State (12/20) has the Vikings headed the right way. PSU held Idaho State to 49 points on Dec. 20, the fewest by an opponent in 34 games... the 70.7 points allowed is down from last year's 73.3 by opponents. Conference opponents are averaging 67.6 points per game. But there is a lot of room for improvement as the Vikings are allowing opponents to shoot .489 from the field and .394 from three-point range - both of which rank last in the league... the Vikings are forcing 13.4 turnovers per game, up from 11.4 forced last season.

BALANCE? YUP: Portland State expected a more balanced offensive attack this season after scoring stars Charles Odum and Chehales Tapscott graduated. As it happens, six Vikings are averaging between 6.7 and 11.4 points per game. And, five have led the team in scoring at least three times each (including ties): Renado Parker (4), Michael Harthun (4), Aaron Moore (4), Lateef McMullan (3) and Dre Winston (3).

GOOD HANDLE: JR PG Lateef McMullan has turned in a remarkable stretch of ball handling over the last month, highlighted by his career-high nine assists with no turnovers against Sacramento State. In his last 11 games, McMullan has 51 assists against just 17 turnovers, a 3 to 1 ratio. For the season, his ratio is 56/26 (2.2 ast/to). That ranks third-best in the Big Sky Conference. He is fourth overall in the Big Sky in assists... for the year, the 5-11 ball-handler averages 10.6 points and 3.7 assists. 

MOORE, MOORE, MOORE: JR F Aaron Moore has played as well as any Viking this season and is in the midst of a hot stretch. In his last seven games, Moore has posted three double-doubles and averaged 15.0 points....  currently, Moore is seventh in field goal percentage (.520) and fifth in rebounding (6.6) in the Big Sky Conference. He averages 11.3 points and shoots .784 at the line. 

PARKER'S PART: SR F Renado Parker averages a team-leading 11.4 points and is second in rebounding at 4.9 per game despite being hindered by a nagging ankle injury the last several weeks... he is shooting .462 from the field and .760 at the line... he has scored in double figures in a team-high 11 of 14 games... Parker has led the team in scoring a team-high four times.

THUN-ING UP: SR G Michael Harthun is heating up, having made 12-16 three-pointers in the last four games. He comes off a season-best 19-point game (6-8 FG, 4-4 3-pt 3-3 FT) at North Dakota... he has averaged 16.7 points in his last three games... Harthun is averaging 11.2 points per game, up from 8.6 last year. Harthun is shooting .492 from the field, .463 from distance, and .818 at the line... he ranks 12th in field goal percentage and fifth in three-point percentage in the Big Sky Conference.

NICE COMEBACK: SO G Gary Winston has made a nice comeback from a nightmare shooting game at Montana State on Jan. 3. Winston was 0-9 in that game, 0-8 from three-point distance. In the five games since, he is 16-29 from the field (.552) and 9-13 from three-point range (.692)... Winston has moved into the starting lineup for the last four games, averaging 8.8 points per game.

CATALDO CALLED ON: SO C Brandon Cataldo has been called upon for increased minutes the past two weeks and he has responded. Cataldo, who was averaging 1.3 points per game with five blocked shots in his first 12 games, has averaged 6.2 points with seven blocked shots over the last four games on 16.5 minutes per game.  He is 14-23 shooting in those games (.609)... Cataldo had seven points, four rebounds and a blocked shot in a career-high 23 minutes at North Dakota, starting in place of SR F Renado Parker... Cataldo ranks fifth in Big Sky games with 12 blocked shots. 

OTHER 6TH MAN MOMENTS: Against Sacramento State, SR F Martin Whitmore scored a career-high 11 points (3-3 3-pt FG). Whitmore  scored five points with a career-high six rebounds at Northern Colorado... JR C Lamont Prosser responded when SR F Renado Parker was injured at Northern Colorado with career-highs of six points and eight rebounds.