Portland, OR – A bad relationship with the three-point shot nearly cost Portland State a game, but the Vikings held on to defeat Saint Martin's in a non-conference contest, 69-60, at Viking Pavilion.
 
Head Coach Barret Peery said before the game the Vikings would need to do a good job defending the three-point line. It didn't work out too well, as the Saints hit 11-25 (.440) for the night. On the other end, PSU made only 5-22 (.227) with three of them coming late.
 
However, PSU dominated every other facet of the game to get its second win in a row at home.
 
Amari McCray scored a season-high 22 points on 9-14 from the field and 4-5 at the line to lead Portland State. Paris Dawson added 12 points and James Scott scored 10 with four assists for the Vikings.
 
PSU won the backboards, 40-33, and forced 19 Saints' turnovers. The Vikings also had a good night at the line at 20-27 (.741). Both teams shot 39% from the field, but Saint Martin's made enough from outside to keep it close.
 
Saint Martin's made four of their first five from distance in building an early 18-13 lead. But PSU went on a nine-point run to take a 22-18 edge at the 9:37 mark of the first half. The Vikings never trailed again, but never quite got comfortable.
 
McCray led Portland State's first-half surge scoring 15 points in 12 minutes. McCray made 7-9 shots from the field. PSU went into the halftime break with a 32-28 lead.
 
The Vikings had a 22-15 rebound advantage at halftime, but Saint Martin's stayed close with five first-half three-pointers.
 
Portland State quickly stretched the lead to a dozen early in the second half. However, Saint Martin's got hot from outside again, hitting four straight three-pointers from three different players to pull back within 52-51 at the seven-minute mark.
 
Saint Martin's exploited PSU's poor outside shooting by backing into a zone defense to try to neutralize McCray and dare the Vikings to shoot from deep. That allowed the Saints to keep the game close. Finally, Dawson made two three-pointers and Ian Burke a third down the stretch for the Vikings to create some distance from the Saints.
 
"Let's give these guys lots of credit. This was a good opponent," said Peery. "They did a good job and were well prepared. I thought we had good looks all night long but just couldn't hit shots. Their zone made us passive on offense and we didn't handle it too well.
 
"We were able to punch the ball into Amari and he was 9-14 and we rebounded it well enough, we just didn't make shots tonight. Sometimes you just have to find a way to win."
 
With the win, PSU improves to 4-8 on the season. Saint Martin's is 0-4 on the season.
 
Ty Velasquez had 12 points and six assists, including three three-pointers for the Saints.
 
GAME NOTES: Khalid Thomas had an off-shooting night, but led the Vikings with six rebounds and three blocked shots, while handing off three assists… PSU is now 4-3 at home this season… this is the third of a six-game home stand for the Vikings. It is the longest home stand by a Viking team since Dec. 16, 2004-Jan. 8, 2005… this was the first meeting between PSU and Saint Martin's in 46 years. The teams played 11 times between 1955 and 1975 with PSU winning seven… Saint Martin's is an NCAA II member of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference… Portland State plays another non-conference game on Friday afternoon when it hosts Simpson University. Tip off for that game 3:05 p.m. The game can be seen on Pluto TV Channel 1051, www.Pluto.tv, www.WatchBigSky.com. Live stats are available at www.ViksLive.com.