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Portland, OR - Montana's league-leading defense lived up to its billing, shutting down the Vikings at the Stott Center, 73-54.

Montana brought the Big Sky Conference's best defense to town and it affected the Vikings early and often. The Griz were allowing only 65.4 points and forcing 14.2 turnovers per game. Against the Vikings, they were better than that. It also helped that the Griz had one of their best shooting nights of the season, hitting 28-51 from the field (.549), 10-20 from three-point range and all seven free throws.

Montana's win was its sixth in a row and improved the Griz record to 11-8, 7-1 in the Big Sky Conference. Portland State fell to 10-9, 4-5 in the Big Sky. The Vikings have lost two games in a row.

PSU was sluggish from the opening tip, hitting only one of its first eight shots and committing four turnovers. The Vikings found themselves down 9-2 after six minutes of play. 

Montana's lead grew to as many as eight points before PSU fought back into the game. The Vikings made only two of their first 14 shots, but closed out the half by making 9-12. They trailed only 32-31 at halftime and appeared to be in it.

Martin Breunig sparked the Grizzlies to start the second half. He scored nine in a 15-2 run pushing Montana to a 47-33 lead with 15:05 to play. Portland State cut into that advantage, getting the deficit back to single digits briefly. 

Then Montana scored another 16 in a row with six coming from Jordan Gregory. Down 65-40 with seven minutes to play, the Vikings were out of it. The Grizzlies outscored PSU 41-23 in the decisive second half, holding the Vikings to 6-20 from the field.

PSU shot only 17-46 for the game (.370) and turned the ball over 14 times for 15 Montana points. The Vikings were averaging only 10 turnovers going in the game.

Breunig scored a game-high 23 points for Montana, hitting 10-16 shots. Most of his work was done inside as Montana outscored the Vikings 30-12 in the paint. Gregory added 15 points and four assists.

DaShaun Wiggins was the only Viking in double figures, scoring 17. He also had four steals. Collin Spickerman led the Vikings with seven rebounds and blocked two shots.

GAME NOTES: SO G Bryce White is likely to miss the remainder of the season due to low back issues. SO G Zach Gengler has started in his place the last three games… PSU is now 6-3 at home this season… Portland State hosts Montana State on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. Live video, audio and stats are available at GoViks.com by clicking on the Game Day Box.