Bozeman, MT - A frenetic late rally came up just short for Portland State as the Vikings lost 74-73 to Montana State at Worthington Arena.
 
PSU trailed 70-58 with 3:09 to play in the game, but created chaos on the defensive end, forcing Montana State into seven turnovers down the stretch. 
 
Jaylin Henderson scored seven of the Vikings final 15 points and his three-pointer with 0.9 seconds left pulled PSU within 74-73. The Vikings needed a miraculous play to pull off the comeback and almost got it. The Bobcats struggled to inbound the ball and had to call a timeout. Finally, they were able to get the ball in and end the game.
 
The rally was impressive but Portland State still found itself on the wrong end of the score. It marked the first time since the first two games of December that the Vikings had lost in back-to-back contests.
 
PSU dropped to 13-9 overall, 5-4 in the Big Sky Conference and tied for third place. MSU inched up the standings at 10-13, 5-5. The Bobcats have won five of their last seven games and four in a row at home.
 
Terri Miller Jr. had his second straight 25-point game and kept the Vikings alive in the second half. Miller made 10-16 shots from the field, 4-4 at the line, had six rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot.
 
Henderson added 17 points and three steals for the Vikings. Qiant Myers scored 14 points with four assists.
 
Patrick McMahon scored 21 points with nine rebounds off the bench to lead the Bobcats.
 
The first half was a back-and-forth battle with seven ties and 13 lead changes. Each team's largest lead was only five points. The Bobcats led 38-35 at halftime simply by virtue of making a couple more three-point shots than the Vikings.
 
There were no lead changes in the second half, but it took MSU a while to shake the Vikings. Finally, a Jed Miller three-pointer with just over seven minutes remaining pushed the Bobcats lead to double digits at 62-51. PSU was seemingly on the ropes in an unfriendly environment.
 
Montana State was up 12 with three minutes remaining but the Vikings weren't done. Miller scored inside, then a pair of steals on the Bobcats' next two possessions led to breakaway scores by Myers and Henderson. Now the Vikings trailed just 70-64 with 1:43 to play. 
 
Remarkably, the Vikings scored nine points in the final 32 seconds. However, among the flurry of Bobcat turnovers in the last three minutes, they managed to make 4-4 free throws. Tyler Patterson made two with 18 seconds left. That proved to be just enough to hold off the Vikings. 
 
Montana State out-shot the Vikings, .490 to .444 in the contest. The Bobcats made 15-18 free throws to 11-17 for PSU. Rebounding was even at 34-34.
 

GAME NOTES

• Tre-Vaughn Minott had a game-high 11 rebounds for the Vikings.
• PSU is now 4-7 on the road.
• This was the second game of a four-game road trip for the Vikings. Portland State will play its next game at Idaho on Thursday. Tip-off is 6 p.m. and the game can be seen on ESPN+.