Riverside, CA – Portland State's stellar season-opening streak came to an end as St. Thomas out-shot the Vikings in the final game of the Lancer Joust Tournament, 76-70.
 
The Tommies made four of their last five shots from the field and seven of the last 11 to hold off a hard-charging Viking team.  St. Thomas of the Summit League ended up shooting .510 from the field, including 15-25 from three-point range (.600). PSU shot .414 overall, 12-34 from distance (.353).
 
The Vikings dropped to 5-1 on the season with the loss. PSU's 5-0 start was its best-ever in the Big Sky era and matched the best-ever in school history. St. Thomas went to 3-3 with the victory.
 
Jorell Saterfield led Portland State with 16 points and five rebounds. KJ Allen had 14 points and six rebounds. Bobby Harvey scored 11, while Isaiah Johnson and Ismail Habib each scored 10.
 
Portland State went into the contest with a chance to sweep the tournament, hosted by California Baptist, and be the de facto champion. The Tommies entered at 0-2 but had been outscored by only five points.
 
St. Thomas got on top early with excellent three-point shooting. The Tommies made six three-pointers in the opening eight minutes of the game. That got then to a 23-15 lead midway through the first half. They continued firing from deep making 10 of 17 by halftime and led 41-34 at the break.
 
It was a difficult guard for the Vikings as six different Tommies made threes in the opening half. Kendall Blue was the best among them, making 4-4 for 12 points.
 
Portland State had trouble maintaining that pace, hitting 6-14 shots from deep. A four-minute scoring drought in the middle of the half by PSU had St. Thomas leading by as many as 10.
 
Blue hit two more threes early in the second half and the Tommies got back to a 10-point advantage at 50-40.
 
That's when Saterfield got hot for the Vikings. The senior guard scored 10 of PSU's next 20 points. The Vikings had a pair of brief one-point leads, and were tied at 60 on a Saterfield three with just under seven minutes to play.
 
But PSU made only three field goals the rest of the way, including missing its last five three-point attempts in the final two minutes. St. Thomas continued to be on the mark with their shooting and added 8-10 at the line down the stretch.
 
Blue led St. Thomas with 22 points. Drake Dobbs added 17 points.
 

GAME NOTES

• Kendall Munson led the Vikings with seven rebounds while Ismail Habib had a team-high four assists.
• Portland State started the season 5-0 for the first time in PSU's Big Sky Conference era (28 seasons). The only other 5-0 start in PSU history was 1976-77 when the Viking program opened the season with wins over Montana Tech, Whittier, Portland, Western Montana and Eastern Montana.
• This marked the first time in history that Portland State and St. Thomas had met in basketball.
• PSU will be off for nine days before taking on the University of Portland at the Viking Pavilion on Nov. 28.