St. George, UT – It is starting to sound redundant, but Portland State's "big three" came up big again as the Vikings came from behind on the road to beat Utah Tech, 68-63, at Burns Arena.
 
Jaylin Henderson, Tre-Vaughn Minott and Terri Miller Jr. combined to score the final 10 points of the game in the last 1:23 of action, turning a 63-58 deficit into a 68-63 victory. That trio, all of whom were picked to the Preseason All-Big Sky Conference team, combined for 45 points, 25 rebounds and 10 assists overall in leading the Vikings to victory.
 
It was a back-and-forth game with nine lead changes and six ties, and it looked like the Vikings were going to come out on the short end with less than 90 seconds to play. Utah Tech picked up its offense in the second half, hitting 15-24 from the field before missing its last four shots and committing four turnovers in its last 10 possessions against the stingy Viking defense.
 
PSU was down 63-58 when Miller, who played only 20 minutes due to foul trouble, got them back into the game. Following a three-point miss by the Trailblazers, Henderson found Miller racing up the floor with a pass and he scored on a drive with 1:23 left, closing the gap to 63-60.
 
Henderson then drew an offensive foul on the other end and the Vikings saw their chance. Miller was fouled on another drive to the rim and calmly sunk two free throws with 1:03 to play. Now it was 63-62.
 
The Vikings forced a traveling violation on the Trailblazers with 42 seconds to go. Another Miller drive resulted in a miss, but the ball was batted around and Henderson came up with a long rebound. He went inside and lofted a teardrop from six feet that was all net, giving Portland State the lead at 64-63 with 26 seconds to play.
 
Utah Tech hurried up the floor and got a look at an open three-pointer but missed. Henderson grabbed the rebound and was fouled. He buried a pair of free throws for a 66-63 advantage with 16 seconds left.
 
Again, the Trailblazers went for a tying three-pointer. When it came of the rim, Minott grabbed his 16^th rebound of the game and was fouled. He too, made a pair of free throws to put the game on ice at 68-63 and only two seconds on the clock.
 
"We are gritty and tough when things aren't going exactly how we want," said Vikings Coach Jase Coburn. "We can grind things out and make the best of it. Jaylin didn't have his best night, but had eight assists for us. Tre-Vaughn got 16 and 16 and Terri had 19. It was a great night."
 
Indeed it was, as Portland State improved to 4-2 on the season, gathering in its first road win of the year and third straight win overall. Utah Tech slipped to 4-5, losing its first home game.
 
Portland State started fast against the Trailblazers, building an early 13-4 lead behind eight points from Minott. Soon the Vikings cooled off and Utah Tech came back. Eventually, the Trailblazers took the lead at 21-20 on a three-pointer by Jasaun Holt and led 26-24 at halftime.
 
After the Vikings opened 5-7 from the field, they made only 5-24 over the rest of the half. Neither team shot well with PSU at 10-31 and Utah Tech at 10-29 from the field.
 
Minott had a double-double by halftime with 12 points and 10 rebounds to keep the game close for the Vikings.
 
Portland State pulled back in front 40-34 early in the second half. That's when the Trailblazers mounted another run of 14-2 for a 48-42 lead with 12 minutes left.
 
Utah Tech's largest lead was 52-45 with just over 10 minutes to play. PSU rallied back behind seven points from Sebastian Tidor to take the lead again at 56-53 with 6:56 to go. But a 10-2 UT rally over the next five minutes had the Vikings in a difficult spot before the big three closed out the win.
 
Miller scored a game-high 19 points on 7-11 from the field, 1-1 three-pointers and 4-6 at the line. Minott scored 16 points, matching his career high for the third time this season, and hauled down 16 rebounds. Despite not having a good shooting night, Henderson scored 10 points with a career-high eight assists and three steals.
 
The Vikings shot only .397 from the field and .263 from three-point range, but they had a huge edge on the boards with a 44-26 rebounding advantage.
 
Utah Tech was 25-57 from the field (.439) and 5-21 from three-point range (.238). Ethan Potter scored 18 points to lead the Trailblazers. Chance Trujillo had 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
 

GAME NOTES

• Jaylin Henderson was 8-8 at the free throw line and has now made 24 consecutive free throws.
• The teams had exactly the same number of points off turnovers (12), points in the paint (34), fast break points (4) and bench points (12). A big difference was PSU's 10-2 edge in second chance points, thanks to 16 offensive rebounds for the Vikings and only three for the Trailblazers.
• This was only the second meeting all-time between the schools. PSU leads the series, 2-0. They will be conference opponents next season as Utah Tech will join the Big Sky Conference.
• Head Coach Jase Coburn's career record is now .500 at 66-66 over five seasons. Coburn is 29-24 in non-conference games.
• Portland State ended a five-game road losing streak dating to last season. The next game is also on the road. It comes next Wednesday at South Dakota as part of the Big Sky Conference-Summit League Challenge.