MONTANA STATE BOBCATS (10-10, 5-2) at
PORTLAND STATE VIKINGS (12-8, 3-4)

Saturday, January 27, 2024, 4 p.m. • Viking Pavilion (3,094), Portland, OR
Live Stream: ESPN+ • Play-by-play: Matt Richert • Analyst: Devon Pouncey
Live Stats: www.ViksLive.com

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OPENING TIP

Portland State will go after a weekend sweep this Saturday when it takes on a suddenly hot Montana State team at the Viking Pavilion. PSU comes off an exhilarating 72-46 home win over Montana, while the Bobcats beat Sacramento State, 70-62, on the road on Thursday. So both teams will be riding some momentum when they meet in a 4 p.m. game that can be seen on ESPN+.
     
The Vikings (12-8, 3-4) are particularly happy with Thursday's win in what may have been their most complete game of the season. A full-court press threw the Grizzlies out of synch as they scored 33 points(!) under their season average on 31% shooting. Meanwhile, Portland State's sluggish offense came to life, hitting 12-24 three-point field goals, shooting 49% overall and committing a season-low four turnovers. PSU also had a 36-32 rebounding edge.
     
SO G Ismail Habib had a career-high 19 points (7-12 FG, 4-7 3-pt, 1-2 FT) and six assists while leading four Vikings in double figures. Habib came off the bench for the first time since early November as a lineup change seemed to ignite the team and all nine players who competed had positive contributions. The return of SR F KJ Allen, the team's leading scorer (10.7 ppg) and rebounder (6.8 rpg) was also a key.
     
PSU has still only played seven of 20 games at home. Thursday was the first of a four-game home stand for the Vikings, who are now 6-1 in The Ship. With 12 wins on the season, PSU has now matched last year's win total (12-19) and done so in only 20 games (12-8).
     
Meanwhile, the Bobcats (10-10, 5-2) have won four of their last five games and snuck into second place in the Big Sky Conference (with a little help from the Vikings). MSU's offense has been trending positively under first-year coach Matt Logie as it averages 74.1 points and has a good shooting slash line of .464/.347/.739. MSU is 3-5 on the road this season.
     
Although the Bobcats saw a lot of changes in the off-season, they still hold the mantle of two-time defending Big Sky Tournament Champions. And more significantly, Montana State has beaten Portland State in the last six meetings between the schools - a blemish the Vikings definitely want to erase.
 

COMING UP

Portland State will be off until next Saturday when the Vikings host Sacramento State in a 4 p.m. game. The Vikings follow with a Monday, Feb. 5 home game with Eastern Washington.
 

GAME NOTES: PORTLAND STATE vs. MONTANA STATE

• ALL-TIME SERIES: Montana State leads the all-time series, 40-27, and the Big Sky Conference series, 33-24... the Bobcats have won six games in a row in the series... PSU leads 17-11 in Big Sky games played in Portland... the Vikings are also 4-0 against the Bobcats in Big Sky Tournament games.
• Jan. 26, 2023 at Viking Pavilion, MSU 75, PSU 66: Montana State showed its championship mettle in the late-going, pulling away from Portland State. 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 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. 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.... Cameron Parker had another big game for the Vikings, posting 23 points and four assists. He made 9-16 shots from the field... 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. Feb. 25, 2023 at Bozeman, MSU 91, PSU 78: Montana State pulled away from a one-point halftime lead, taking advantage of 33 fouls whistled against the Vikings. MSU hit 32-43 at the free throw line for the game, had a 45-27 rebounding edge and shot .491 from the field... Jubrile Belo went for 21 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots to lead the Bobcats. Raequan Battle added 20 points... Cameron Parker led the Vikings with 26 points, hitting 6-12 from the field and 13-15 at the line, and four assists.
• COACHES: Vikings Coach Jase Coburn (Arizona State, 2006) is in his third season as Head Coach. He spent eight previous seasons on the Park Blocks as an Assistant and Associate Head Coach. Coburn has a 38-44 record overall. He is 0-4 against Montana State. .. the Bobcats are coached by Matt Logie (Lehigh, 2003) in his first season.

 

SCOUTING MONTANA STATE

• Montana State is an original member of the Big Sky Conference. The Bobcats have won five regular season Big Sky Championships, four Big Sky Tournament titles and made six NCAA Tournament appearances.
• The Bobcats are the defending Big Sky Conference tournament champions. They were 25-10 last season, 15-3 and second place in the Big Sky. In the off-season, the Bobcats hired Matt Logie as their new head coach, replacing Danny Sprinkle who went to Utah State.
• This season, Montana State is 10-10 overall, 5-2 and in second place in the Big Sky Conference. The Bobcats average 74.1 points and allow 73.5 points per game. They make 8.6 three-pointers per game - second-most in the Big Sky - and lead the league with 8.4 steals per game.
• Junior forward Brian Goracke leads the team in scoring at 15.7 points per game - fourth in the Big Sky -  and has a team-high 46 three-point field goals. He leads the Big Sky with a .913 free throw percentage. Senior guard Robert Ford III averages 14.6 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists and a Big Sky-leading 2.9 steals per game. Sophomore forward Brandon Walker averages 13.6 points and shoots a Big Sky-best .583 from the field.

 

WHO IS HOT

• PRESSING THE ISSUE: Head Coach Jase Coburn threw on a full-time, full-court press against Montana on Thursday and you could say it worked quite well. The Griz averaged 79 points and shot 49% from the field going into the game. Against the Vikings they managed only 46 points and shot 31%... the 72-46 win over Montana was PSU's biggest win over the Griz in 15 seasons.
• SHAKE IT UP: Coburn also shook up the starting lineup with FR G Cole Farrell and SR G Isiah Kirby and adding JR F Isaiah Johnson to regular starters JR F Kendall Munson and SR G Bobby Harvey. You could say that move worked as well. PSU was shaken out of its shooting slump, hitting 49% from the field, matching a season-high with 12 three-point field goals and committing a season-low four turnovers... the move seemed to help everyone who played. SO G Ismail Habib came off the bench for a career-high 19 points and six assists (Habib has averaged 14.7 points over the past three games). Kirby continued his solid play with 11 points, four rebounds and four assists. In his first game back from injury SR F KJ Allen came off the bench with 11 points and seven rebounds. Munson matched his career high with eight rebounds. Harvey scored 13 points.
• THE BENCH BUNCH: The Vikings have been producing all season when they make substitutions. PSU has scored 542 bench points (27.1 per game) to rank 42nd in the nation and second in the Big Sky... last year, the Vikings averaged 27.9 points per game off the bench to rank 12th in the nation.
• GOOD DECISIONS: SR G Isiah Kirby is the team leader in assist-to-turnover ratio. In 16 minutes a game as a ball handler, Kirby has 39 assists and only 19 turnovers... Kirby has been on a roll in the last four games, averaging 11.0 points and shooting 20-33 from the field (.606). He shoots .505 from the field on the season.
• BLOCK PARTY: JR C Hayden Curtiss has seen a gradual rise in his minutes during the season. He has 26 blocked shots to lead the team and rank fourth in the Big Sky Conference. Twenty-three of those blocks have come in the last 11 games.
• STRONG INDICATORS: Portland State is 6-1 when playing at home... 8-1 when leading at halftime... 8-0 when out-rebounding an opponent... 7-1 when out-shooting an opponent... 9-1 when scoring 70 or more points.
• LATE GAME HEROICS: Once again this season Portland State has had numerous close games and game-winning shots. Through 20 games, 11 have been decided by seven points or less. The Vikings are 8-3 in those games.

 

READY WHEN YOUR NUMBER IS CALLED

Continuing the trend of last season, Head Coach Jase Coburn continues to go deep into his bench. The Vikings have 1,488 bench minutes out of 4025 total minutes, getting 542 points and 262 rebounds from the backups.

• The bench is shooting better than the starters. PSU shoots 200-448 (.446) off the bench and 305-763 (.400) from the starters.
• PSU gets 38% of its points and 35% of its rebounds off the bench.
• LINEUPS: Head Coach Jase Coburn has started 10 of the 12 players on the roster at some point this season... there have been eight different starting lineups... the Vikings are 7-1 each time they start a different lineup.