Santa Barbara, CA – Another gutty effort, this time against defending Big West Conference Champion UC Santa Barbara, earned Portland State a road sweep in the opening week of the college basketball season.
 
The Vikings broke away from a halftime tie to beat the Gauchos, 82-76. As a result, Portland State has won its first two games for the first time since opening 4-0 in 2017-18.
 
"That's a team that is supposed to win the Big West. That's a big win for us," said Viking Coach Jase Coburn. "We talk about how experienced our team is. That environment (in the arena) was nuts. It was great to see that support for their team. But it wasn't too big for our team."
 
Game two was a bigger challenge for the Vikings after an opening win at Air Force on Monday. UCSB won 27 games last season and was playing its home opener in front of a home crowd of nearly 4,000 at UCSB Events Center.
 
The difference for the Vikings was effort. A harassing defense forced UCSB into 18 turnovers. Timely rebounding in the second half led to a handful of put-back scores. PSU also totaled 48 points in the paint and scored 22 points on fast breaks.
 
"That's our identity and mentality. We know we have a lot of guys that can play and contribute. We are going to be tough, physical and get after it. We have a long way to go and things we can get better at, but the guys are really buying into being a team," said Coburn.
 
"I told the guys what Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said to his team: 'A connected team is a dangerous team.' Our guys have that connection."
 
The first half had a connection in a different way. It was an extremely close battle with neither team leading by more than four points. There were seven ties and 13 lead changes as the teams went to the locker room with a 40-40 tie.
 
UCSB had a 21-12 rebounding edge, but the Vikings forced nine turnovers.
 
Early in the second half Portland State went on a mini six-point run. Ismail Habib scored on consecutive breakaway lay-ins pushing PSU's advantage to 54-49 and forcing a Gauchos timeout.
 
Later, Bobby Harvey extended the lead on three-pointer to 59-51 with 11:08 left. Then KJ Allen gave the Vikings their biggest lead of the night at 63-53 with a follow tip-in.
 
That's when the Gauchos took off, going on a 10-1 run, to close it to 64-63. With 6:38 to go in the game the Vikings could have wilted in the hostile environment.
 
Instead, they responded. Isaiah Johnson scored six points in a 9-2 rally. Two of his hoops came after offensive rebounds. PSU's lead was back to eight with just over three minutes to play and the Gauchos would never get closer than six points the rest of the way.
 
Heroes abounded for the Vikings as five players scored in double figures. Allen led the way with 13 points. Saterfield and Johnson each had 12 points. Habib came off the bench to score 11 and Bobby Harvey had 10 points. Johnson was the team's leading rebounder for the second straight game with eight.

PSU shot 30-65 from the field (.462) and 18-22 at the free throw line (.818).

UC Santa Barbara shot 28-54 from the field (.519), but committed 18 turnovers compared to only seven for the Vikings. Cole Anderson scored 21 points for the Gauchos while Josh Pierre-Louis had 16 points and five assists.

GAME NOTES

• The Vikings went bigger than in their first game against Air Force, starting guards Isiah Kirby and Jorell Saterfield, and forwards Hunter Woods, KJ Allen and Kendall Munson… that said, PSU had another big night off the bench with 37 points and 14 rebounds from that group.
• Bobby Harvey stretched his three-pointers-made streak to 29 straight games. The school record is 35 games, set by Brian Towne in 1997-98.
• KJ Allen is 13-15 at the free throw line after two games (.867).
• Isaiah Johnson is averaging 10.5 rebounds after two games.
• UC Santa Barbara beat the Vikings 85-73 last season in Portland. The Gauchos won the Big West Conference and reached the NCAA Tournament, going 27-8 on the season.
• Portland State has its home opener on Sunday at 2 p.m. when the Vikings host Linfield at Viking Pavilion. The game can be seen on ESPN+.