Portland, OR – Montana State showed its championship mettle in the late-going, pulling away from Portland State for a 75-66 Big Sky Conference win at Viking Pavilion.
 
Portland State was trying to make in-roads on the top half of the Big Sky Conference and for much of the night appeared ready to do so. PSU led for more than 10 minutes in the first half against the defending Big Sky Conference Champions before giving up the lead just before halftime.
 
In the second half, they held the Bobcats without a point for two-and-a-half minutes and trailed just 61-59 with under four minutes to play. From there, the Bobcats ran off 10 straight points on their next four possessions. They were led by RaeQuan Battle, who made a dunk, a three-pointer, then three free throws. Suddenly, the Vikings were down 71-59 with 1:36 to play. They would not recover.
 
Montana State brought talent and swagger to the game and it showed at crunch time. Battle had the biggest night with 19 points, none more important than the eight he scored in the late run. Caleb Fuller scored 18 points and Great Osobor had 17, making up for the second-half absence of Jubrile Belo, last season's Big Sky Player of the Year.
 
Unfortunately, the last four minutes of the second half mirrored the last four minutes of the first half for PSU. The Vikings had their largest lead at 31-25, but the 'Cats closed out the half on an 11-3 run for a 36-34 advantage. 
 
Portland State trailed the entire second half, but never by more than seven until the closing moments. The Vikings pulled within two on a pair of Cameron Parker free throws with 3:52 on the clock. That's when the Bobcats, led by Battle, took control of the game.
 
"They got that dunk on the out-of-bounds play and that got them going," said Viking Coach Jase Coburn. "The last four minutes of the second half and the last four minutes of the first half got us tonight. We made some mental mistakes that we usually don't make. In this league you have to play 40 minutes to win and we didn't do that tonight."
 
Parker had another big game for the Vikings, posting 23 points and four assists. He made 9-16 shots from the field. Otherwise, the Vikings could not match the Bobcats. PSU made 23-53 from the floor (.434) while MSU hit 26-55 (.473). 
 
The Bobcats also used a big rebounding edge in the second half (24-12) to out-board the Vikings, 36-30, for the game. Montana State also managed the usually stout Viking defense reasonably well, committing only 11 turnovers. PSU had been forcing more than 17 per game.
 
The Bobcats improved to 14-8 on the season, 7-2 in the Big Sky and remain in second place. The Vikings dropped to 9-12, 3-5 in the Big Sky.
 

GAME NOTES

• Hunter Woods scored 11 points, had a team-high eight rebounds and two steals for the Vikings. 
• Portland State was playing just its seventh home game in 21 starts this season… the Vikings are 4-3 at home.
• PSU has lost five in a row to Montana State.
• The Bobcats have won 11 of their last 14 games.
• The Vikings return to the court on Saturday, hosting Montana in a 7 p.m. game on ESPN+.