Boxscore - HTM | PDF
Portland, OR - Down five points midway through the second half, Portland State put on a scoring blitz to vanquish the Vaqueros of Texas Rio Grande Valley, 87-74, at the Stott Center.
PSU scored 31 points in a seven-minute span and quickly turned that deficit into an 18-point lead with 3:23 to play. PSU hit 19-27 shots from the field in the second half (.704), and shot .571 overall for the game.
Injuries had the Vikings outmanned inside but they able to persevere with stellar guard play and a big game from senior forward De'Sean Parsons. Five Vikings scored in double figures, led by 20 points each from Parsons and Calaen Robinson. Deontae North scored 18 points off the bench, Bryce Canda scored 14 and Zach Gengler had 10.
Parsons added six rebounds, six assists and five steals in the win.
Portland State's leading scorer Braxton Tucker, a post, did not play due to knee soreness. Center Traylin Farris started in his place but early in the game collided with the scorer's table going after a loose ball. He was able to play only seven minutes.
But Parsons, Robinson, Canda, Gengler and North were all on their games and PSU spent almost the entire second half in a four-guard lineup against the much bigger Vaqueros. Those five hit 30-50 shots, including 10-15 three-pointers, had 21 assists and 12 steals for the game.
It was a chilly shooting performance by both sides to start the game. The Vikings trailed 12-9 midway through the first half. But they soon found the range from distance, going on an 18-7 run. At that point, PSU led 27-19. In fact, seven of PSU's first nine field goals were three-pointers. Five different players contributed threes in a balanced attack.
Antonio Green brought the Vaqueros back before halftime. He scored nine points in the final 3:37 of the half to cut Portland State's lead to 35-33.
The Vaqueros then continued that rally as the second half started with a 12-4 run to go up 45-39.
With the Vikings down 55-50 and 11 minutes to play, Robinson sparked an 11-0 spurt with a three-pointer, and a steal and layin. Parsons threw down an emphatic dunk with 8:22 remaining and PSU led 61-55. Gengler made a pair of free throws and a three-pointer extending the run to 22-3. PSU was ahead 72-58 with just over five minutes remaining in the game.
The Vikings largest lead of the night was 19 with just under two minutes to play.
"It started with our defense. We started flying around the last 10 minutes and found some energy," said Head Coach Tyler Geving, who picked up his 100th career win at Portland State. "De'Sean's dunk got us going. Calaen had a tough first half, but came back in the second half and played extremely well."
Part of that defensive effort came from forward Montie Leunen, who at 6-4 was the Vikings' post for a large portion of the second half.
"Braxton wasn't playing and Traylin took a pretty good shot, so we went small," said Geving. "Montie gave us a big lift in the second half. He's a great teammate and the team feeds off him. He took two charges and those were big plays that got us going."
Portland State won its second game in a row and improved to 3-3 on the season. With 87 points, PSU matched its season scoring average, which currently leads the Big Sky Conference.
UTRGV dropped to 2-7 overall. Nick Dixon led the Vaqueros with 19 points. Antonio Green pitched in with 16 points.
GAME NOTES: The Vikings were 13-22 from three-point range in the game (.591)... PSU is 44-8 in non-conference home games in the last 10 seasons, 2-0 this season… UTRGV, formerly known as Texas Pan American, is a member of the Western Athletic Conference... PSU leads the all-time series with UTRGV 3-0… the Vikings are off until Dec. 10 when they play at CSU Bakersfield.
