Thursday, January 26
Portland, OR
7:00 PM PT
Montana State University
70
at
65
at PORTLAND STATE
Shawn Reid scored 15 points off the bench for MSU at Portland State
Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson
Bobcats Rally For Road Win at Portland State
1/26/2012 10:32:00 PM | Men's Basketball
MSU holds Vikings scoreless for eight minutes of second half to earn victory
Trailing by 15 points with less than 12 minutes to play, Brad Huse's message to his team was simple.
“We really struggled to score (early in the second half), the guys were frustrated, but the bigger concern was we weren't getting stops,” Huse said on his Bobcat Radio Network post-game show. “They were scoring on us. We had to get that fixed.”
The Bobcats fixed the situation, answering Portland State's 18-2 run to open the second half with an 11-0 spurt over the next eight minutes to trim the lead to 58-54. In fact, from the point of PSU's 58-43 lead with 11:39 to play, Montana State outscored the Vikings 27-7.
“We showed a lot of character,” Huse said. “Our kids really hung in there. We had to do a lot of different things defensively without Mohamed (Fall, MSU's starting center, out with a knee injury). All the cute stuff you do offensively kind of gets lost this time of year with the way teams prepare for you, and that happened tonight. But the thing that was key was the way we defended the last 15 minutes.”
The Bobcats managed to keep the rebounding margin close, with Portland State owning the boards 34-to-31, but MSU turned the ball over only nine times to the Vikings' 17. The Bobcats out-shot the home team 46.6% to 43.9% and held PSU to just 33% shooting after halftime.
Xavier Blount scored 15 points for the Bobcats, and Shawn Reid chipped in 15 off the bench. The biggest of those 15 came with 29 seconds to play, when Reid drilled a three-pointer to give MSU a 67-65 advantage, its first lead since the early moments of the second half. Reid also snagged eight rebounds, his most against a Division I opponent this season and the most in his career against a conference opponent. “From a rebounding standpoint, our guards really stepped up,” Huse said.
Huse said that Reid's effort triggered a solid performance by the Bobcat bench. “Jeff (Budinich) hit a couple of shots, and I thought (reserve center) Blake Brumwell did a great job as much as anyone defensively. He was strong inside against their big guys.”
The close-to-the-vest defensive second half belied an explosive offensive performance by both teams to start the game. MSU led 41-39 at halftime on the strength of a 60% shooting effort. Portland State was almost as good, hitting 56% of its shots before the break. The Vikings nailed eight three-pointers in the game's first 25 minutes, but didn't make one in the final 15. MSU hit three of its eight three-point attempts before halftime, but four of eight after.
“It's another road win for us,” Huse said, “which is huge. It helps catapult us into that second half. Whenever you get road wins, that adds up for the team. But we're not in a position to worry a lot about the standings. We have another challenge on Saturday.”
The win raises MSU's record to 11-8 overall, 6-2 in Big Sky play. The Vikings fall to 10-10 overall, 4-4 in the league. MSU visits Eastern Washington Saturday, while Portland State hosts Montana.
“We really struggled to score (early in the second half), the guys were frustrated, but the bigger concern was we weren't getting stops,” Huse said on his Bobcat Radio Network post-game show. “They were scoring on us. We had to get that fixed.”
The Bobcats fixed the situation, answering Portland State's 18-2 run to open the second half with an 11-0 spurt over the next eight minutes to trim the lead to 58-54. In fact, from the point of PSU's 58-43 lead with 11:39 to play, Montana State outscored the Vikings 27-7.
“We showed a lot of character,” Huse said. “Our kids really hung in there. We had to do a lot of different things defensively without Mohamed (Fall, MSU's starting center, out with a knee injury). All the cute stuff you do offensively kind of gets lost this time of year with the way teams prepare for you, and that happened tonight. But the thing that was key was the way we defended the last 15 minutes.”
The Bobcats managed to keep the rebounding margin close, with Portland State owning the boards 34-to-31, but MSU turned the ball over only nine times to the Vikings' 17. The Bobcats out-shot the home team 46.6% to 43.9% and held PSU to just 33% shooting after halftime.
Xavier Blount scored 15 points for the Bobcats, and Shawn Reid chipped in 15 off the bench. The biggest of those 15 came with 29 seconds to play, when Reid drilled a three-pointer to give MSU a 67-65 advantage, its first lead since the early moments of the second half. Reid also snagged eight rebounds, his most against a Division I opponent this season and the most in his career against a conference opponent. “From a rebounding standpoint, our guards really stepped up,” Huse said.
Huse said that Reid's effort triggered a solid performance by the Bobcat bench. “Jeff (Budinich) hit a couple of shots, and I thought (reserve center) Blake Brumwell did a great job as much as anyone defensively. He was strong inside against their big guys.”
The close-to-the-vest defensive second half belied an explosive offensive performance by both teams to start the game. MSU led 41-39 at halftime on the strength of a 60% shooting effort. Portland State was almost as good, hitting 56% of its shots before the break. The Vikings nailed eight three-pointers in the game's first 25 minutes, but didn't make one in the final 15. MSU hit three of its eight three-point attempts before halftime, but four of eight after.
“It's another road win for us,” Huse said, “which is huge. It helps catapult us into that second half. Whenever you get road wins, that adds up for the team. But we're not in a position to worry a lot about the standings. We have another challenge on Saturday.”
The win raises MSU's record to 11-8 overall, 6-2 in Big Sky play. The Vikings fall to 10-10 overall, 4-4 in the league. MSU visits Eastern Washington Saturday, while Portland State hosts Montana.
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