Portland, OR – As cool as could be, Ismail Habib put the ball between his legs, sized up the defense, then sliced through four Portland Pilot defenders to the basket for a game-winning lay-in with 0.8 seconds on the clock. And for the second time in two weeks, Habib delivered his Portland State team the deciding basket at the end. The Vikings came away with a thrilling, come-from-behind 75-74 victory in the crosstown rivalry game at Viking Pavilion.
 
PSU had to put in a lot of hard work in the second half to come back from a 12-point second-half deficit. Big contributions came from Bobby Harvey (13 points in the second half), Isaiah Johnson (12 points, six rebounds in the second half) and Habib, who hit a pair of three-point field goals in the final two minutes before his scramble to the rim for the game-winner.
 
Portland State trailed by 12 with 17 minutes to go but rallied to tie the game at 60-60 on a Harvey three-pointer with 6:05 to play. The Pilots got the lead back to 70-65 with 2:08 left in the game. That's when Habib went to work.
 
First, the sophomore point guard hit a three from the corner with 1:47 to go. After the Pilots came up empty on their end, Habib buried a three from the top of the key giving PSU a 71-70 lead with 59.3 seconds left. It was the Vikings' first lead in nearly 33 minutes of game time and exactly 60 points later (11-10, 13:51 of the first half).
 
Tyler Robertson came back to score inside for the Pilots, but on PSU's next possession KJ Allen made a miraculous tip-in of a driving miss by Habib. Once again, PSU led 73-72 with 18.9 seconds to play.
 
Portland took a timeout, then got a short jump shot from Vukasin Masic with 6.6 seconds left to lead 74-73.
 
As the Vikings have in past games, they eschewed a timeout and went for a transition basket. Johnson inbounded to Habib, who raced up the court, paused at the three-point line to survey the defense, then raced through a group of purple jerseys to the hoop for the decider.

VIKS WIN!!!!!!

FIRE US UP, @Mamba_ismail ??#GoViks | #DefendTheShip pic.twitter.com/drmngXJ04X

— Portland State Men's Basketball (@psuviksMBB) November 29, 2023

 
With the victory, PSU continued its early-season run and improved to 6-1 on the season. That matches the best seven-game record in school history (PSU started 6-1 in 2008-09 and 1976-77).
 
For his part, Habib provided his team with a game-winner for the second time in four games. On Nov. 17, he buried a half-court heave at the buzzer to beat California Baptist, 76-73. It also continued Coach Jase Coburn's trend of letting his team play out the game rather than stopping for a timeout. He did the same thing in the Cal Baptist win after the Lancers had tied the game with 2.4 seconds left. In that contest, Johnson also inbounded immediately, Habib caught, took three dribbles and launched the game-winner.
 
"I was thinking our players are really good and they were going to make a play," said Coburn of Habib's driving winner. "Sometimes you have to let the players decide the game when you have really good ones, and I wasn't going to get in their way. When I saw 6.6 seconds on the clock, I knew we had all the time in the world. It's a good win for us, but we expected to win."
 
The Vikings expected to win, but frankly it didn't look like it would go that way for a long time.
 
Portland took a lead early in the first half behind the inside game of Alimamy Koroma. His play, and PSU's poor shooting, was the story of the half. The senior forward could do no wrong for the Pilots, scoring 17 points on 8-10 shooting with seven rebounds. Portland shot .469 in the half, while the Vikings struggled to get to .306 at 11-36 from the field.
 
The Pilots led 37-28 at intermission.
 
That lead grew to as many as 12 points on two occasions. Portland was ahead 58-47 with 11 minutes to go. From there, the Vikings started the slow march back. A 13-3 run, capped by Harvey's three-pointer to tie the game at 60 set up a frantic final six minutes.
 
Habib and Johnson led the Vikings with 18 points each while Harvey finished with 16 points. Johnson, a junior forward, had his collegiate career-high and added 10 rebounds in 27 strong minutes off the bench. He made 7-12 from the field and 4-5 at the line. Habib and Harvey, a senior guard, each posted season-highs, each shot 6-11 from the field, and combined to make 9-17 three-pointers.
 
PSU shot 50% in the second half and finished at .403 for the game. A mere six turnovers played a factor as well.
 
Portland got 52 of its 74 points from Robertson (28) and Koroma (24). Koroma hit 11-16 shots and had a game-high 12 rebounds.
 
The Pilots (4-3) finished at .485 shooting from the field, and were a difficult stop inside with 58 points in the paint. But, they made only 3-18 from long range. The Vikings were 10-26 from the three-point line.
 

GAME NOTES

• Isaiah Johnson is 22-35 from the field (.629) in the last four games, averaging 13.5 points. He leads a balanced Viking team in scoring (11.3), rebounding (6.1) and shooting (.593) this season.
• Portland State is now 66-15 in non-conference home games over the last 15 seasons.
• The halftime Teddy Bear Toss garnered 450 bears for the Fox 12 Les Schwab Tires Toy Drive.
• Portland State will play Saturday afternoon at Washington State. The game can be seen on the Pac-12 Network at 2 p.m. The Vikings return home for a Dec. 6 game against Lewis and Clark.