PORTLAND STATE VIKINGS (5-5) at SANTA CLARA BRONCOS (8-3)

Tuesday, December 13, 2022, 7 p.m. • Leavey Center (4,200), Santa Clara, CA
Live Stream: WCCSports.com
Live Stats: www.ViksLive.com
Complete notes and stats in pdf

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THE OPENING TIP

Portland State wraps up a short two-game road trip on Tuesday night by taking on Santa Clara University. The Vikings meet in a 7 p.m. game at the Leavey Center that will be live streamed on WCCSports.com. PSU returns home Saturday to host UC Santa Barbara of the Big West at Viking Pavilion.
     
The Vikings (5-5) will be looking for a bounce back from their poorest offensive showing of the season in a loss at Cal Poly on Saturday. PSU went into the game averaging a Big Sky Conference-leading 85.3 points per game and shooting .466 from the field. But the Vikings managed only 49 points in a 72-49 loss, shooting a mere 14-44 (.318) from the field. The point total was PSU's lowest in eight years.
     
Now the Vikings will need to regroup against a Santa Clara program that has had an excellent start to the 2022-23 season. After winning 21 games last season and finishing third in the West Coast Conference, Santa Clara has jumped out to an 8-3 start this season. Prior to a loss to San Jose State last Saturday, the Broncos had won five in a row. Among their eight victories are wins over Eastern Washington and Sacramento State of the Big Sky Conference. Santa Clara is 5-1 at home this season. The Vikings come in at 1-3 on the road (1-2 in neutral site games).
     
Portland State is in the midst of a challenging stretch of games. Last Saturday's contest at Cal Poly was the first in a run of six out of their seven away from Viking Pavilion. Remarkably, every non-conference Division I opponent that Portland State has played and will play has had a winning record at the time of the game (with the exception of Oregon State, 3-3 on Nov. 27). After 8-3 Santa Clara, PSU will host 6-2 UC Santa Barbara then travel to 7-4 California Baptist.
     
The Vikings will try to reignite the offense behind leading scorer JR G Jorell Saterfield (16.0 ppg) who leads the Big Sky Conference in three-point field goals made (29). SR G Cameron Parker is averaging 15.1 points and leads the Big Sky in assists (5.1). Third-leading scorer JR F Hunter Woods (9.5 ppg) leads the Vikings in rebounding at 5.5 per game and leads the Big Sky in steals at 2.0 per game.
     

COMING UP

PSU is home this Saturday against UC Santa Barbara (6-2), then wraps up non-conference play at California Baptist (7-4) on Dec. 22.
     
Big Sky Conference play begins Dec. 31 at Sacramento State (5-5).
 

GAME NOTES: PORTLAND STATE vs. SANTA CLARA

• ALL-TIME SERIES: Portland State leads the all-time series with Santa Clara, 2-0... the Vikings are 1-0 at Santa Clara, winning in the most recent meeting, 87-84, on Dec. 9, 2017.
• PORTLAND STATE vs. THE WEST COAST CONFERENCE: Portland State is 41-80 all-time against the West Coast Conference. The Vikings have lost to Portland and Gonzaga this season... Head Coach Jase Coburn is 0-3 all-time against WCC schools.
• COACHES: Vikings Coach Jase Coburn (Arizona State, 2006) is in his second season as Head Coach and has a 19-22 record overall. He has never faced Santa Clara. Coburn spent eight previous seasons on the Park Blocks as an Assistant and Associate Head Coach... the Broncos are coached by Herb Sendek  (Carnegie Mellon, 1985) in his seventh season. Sendek is 105-87 with Santa Clara and 0-1 against the Vikings. He was also 0-1 against Portland State while Head Coach at Arizona State (2006). In 28 years of collegiate coaching, Sendek has a 518-382 record.

 

SCOUTING SANTA CLARA

• Santa Clara is a member of the West Coast Conference located in Santa Clara, CA.
• The Broncos were 21-12 last season, 10-5 and third place in the WCC. They participated in the NIT, losing in the first round to Washington State.
• This season, Santa Clara is 8-3, including wins over Big Sky Conference opponents Eastern Washington and Sacramento State. The Broncos average 72.4 points and allow 69.5 points per game. They shoot only .419 from the field, but make up for it with +7.1 rebounding advantage per game.
• Sophomore guard Brandin Podziemski leads the team with 19.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.2 steals per game. He has also made 25 three-point field goals. 
• Sophomore guard Carlos Stewart averages 12.6 points and senior forward Keshawn Justice averages 12.0 points and 2.8 assists per game.

 

WHO IS HOT

• HOME COOKING: Portland State is 3-0 at home this season and has won the last eight in a row at home dating to last season... in the last 14 seasons, PSU is 64-14 in non-conference home games.
• FREE IS A GOOD PRICE: The Vikings are shooting .752 at the free throw line this season, which is a school-record pace (.743). PSU shot 19-21 (.905) at Oregon State (11/19), then made 15-17 (.882) against Gonzaga (11/24)... SR G Cameron Parker made 13-13 at the line against West Virginia (11/25) - the fifth-most in school history without a miss. Parker shoots .871 at the line this season (54-62) and ranks third in the Big Sky... JR G Jorell Saterfield is shooting .885 (23-26) and would rank third in the Big Sky but does not have enough attempts.
• THE MARKSMAN: SR G Cameron Parker is shooting a blistering .578 from the field this season, .471 from three-point range and .871 at the line... he is averaging a career-high 15.1 points and 5.1 assists this season... Parker matched his collegiate career high with 23 points (8-13 FG, 2-5 3pt, 5-7 FT) and six assists at Portland (11/11), then eclipsed that total with 24 points (5-6 FG, 14-16 FT) in the win over Air Force (12/3).
• THE BENCH: Portland State has had solid bench play all season. A bench boost came  in a win against Oregon State (11/27) from SR G Bobby Harvey (11 pts, 4-8 FG, 3-5 3-pt), JR G Keshaun Saunders (10 pts, 3-4 FG, 4-6 FT) and SO C Hayden Curtiss (6 pts, 3-6 FG, 4 reb, 1 blk)... the win over Portland Bible (11/30) was another story altogether. PSU had 122 bench minutes, scoring 72 of the 114 total points. Harvey led the way with 18 points (7-12 FG, 4-8 3-pt), Curtiss had 14 points (6-8 FG, 2-3 3-pt) and six rebounds. JR Gs Emmanuel Taban (11 pts) and Isiah Kirby (10 pts) were also in double figures... Curtiss leads the team with a .682 field goal percentage off the bench (15-22) while Saunders is shooting .533 (16-30).
• BE LIKE MIKAL: SR G Mikal Starks has always been known for his defensive presence, but he has picked it up offensively in recent games. Starks has averaged 8.0 points and 2.5 assists while shooting .500 from the field over the past six games. Prior to that he was averaging 3.3 points and 2.0 assists.
• BIG SKY LEADERS: Portland State leads the Big Sky Conference in several categories. Individually, JR G Jorell Saterfield leads in three-point field goals made per game (2.9), JR F Hunter Woods leads in steals (2.0), SR G Cameron Parker leads in assists (5.1)... as a team, the Vikings lead in scoring (81.7), scoring margin (+10.1), turnover margin (+4.9), turnovers forced (18.2), and steals (8.60).

 

IT'S NOT WHO STARTS...

Portland State's bench has been very effective this season. Starters have logged 1,190 minutes and reserves have logged 810 minutes. Remarkably, in those minutes, the bench has scored almost has much as the starters, 452 to 365.

• The bench has outscored the starters on three occasions.
• Bench players (137-275, .499) have out-shot the starters (143-340, .421) from the field.

 

SHOOTING, SCORING... IT ALL MAKES SENSE

After 10 games this season...

• The Vikings are 5-0 when they shoot a higher percentage than their opponents. They are 0-5 when they do not.
• The Vikings are 5-0 when they lead at halftime. They are 0-4 when trailing, 0-1 when the game is tied at halftime.