Vandals can't beat buzzer against Big Sky Conference's No. 1 team, Portland State
Jan. 25—MOSCOW — With four seconds left in a fight to the finish between the Idaho and Portland State men's basketball teams and down three points, Vandal guard Biko Johnson had a chance to try to force the game into overtime with a contested 3-point shot.
The shot did not fall and the Vandals lost to the Vikings 69-66 on Saturday at the ICCU Arena in a Big Sky Conference battle in front 2,366 fans.
Portland State (13-5, 7-0) is the No. 1 team in the Big Sky standings, and Idaho (12-8, 4-3) is No. 4. In a game that looked like the Vikings could have run far and away with it, the Vandals battled back and made things close in the end.
With 44 seconds remaining in regulation, Idaho was down just one point and made Portland State earn the win.
"Our guys showed good resilience tonight," Idaho coach Alex Pribble said. "There's a situation where we've been battling a lot of individual adversity. We have some health issues going through the team, and that's not an excuse. The guys continue to battle. And I thought they really stuck together throughout the game."
The Vandals' attempted comeback
The first half was a back-and-forth contest for the first 10 minutes, knotted at 19-19 with 10 minutes, 12 seconds to go in the half. Then, the Vikings started to pull away from the Vandals a bit, leading by seven at 33-26 at halftime.
In the second half, Portland State was in control for nearly the first 10 minutes, leading 51-41 with 11:26 to go.
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Idaho then kicked it into gear and started to inch closer.
A Johnson steal that led to a spinning layup by Isaiah Brickner while guarded by two defenders seemed to be the spark.
Three 3-pointers by Johnson kept the Vandals close to the Vikings, who did not stop scoring either.
Johnson got a steal and hit a 3-pointer at 5:43 to put the Vandals within five. He hit another 3 a minute later to put the Vandals within five again.
Idaho was in the double bonus and used a made free throw by Brody Rowbury, and then two more from Johnson to cut PSU's lead to 65-61.
Johnson's third 3 within that stretch gave the Vandals their best chance to potentially take the lead as he scored to make the contest a one-point game at 65-64 with 44 seconds left.
It was a 3-pointer that he took at the top of the key, and it looked like he was fouled by a Portland State defender, but there was no call. The Idaho coaches were seen yelling at the referee after a timeout was called.
"I haven't seen it on film yet, but people that I trust that look at the film told me it was clearly a foul, so I'll have to go back and look," Pribble said. "But we don't want to put ourselves in situations where the officials can determine the game. We just need to make sure that we're controlling what we can. And I was glad Biko stepped in that scenario and was able to make the shot."
Portland State scored, then with 19 seconds left, the Vandals drove down the court, looked for a quick 3, but decided to call a timeout.
Out of the timeout, Idaho ran a play in which Brickner cut toward the basket and an alley-oop pass was thrown. The play had a good look and Brickner was fouled during the shot but missed the layup. He made the following free throws to make it 66-67 with nine seconds left.
Idaho quickly fouled, and the Vikings made it a three-point game at 69-66, then Johnson missed his highly contested last-second 3 to end the game.
Players of the game
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Johnson and Brickner were the stars of the game for the Vandals.
Johnson finished with 20 points, tied for a team-high with six rebounds and had a team-high three steals. He shot 4-of-12 from the field, 4-of-9 from beyond the arc and 8-of-10 from the free-throw line.
Brickner came off the bench and totaled 22 points and tied Johnson for the team-high six rebounds. Brickner shot an efficient 7-of-9 from the field, 2-of-3 from long range and 6-of-8 from the line.
Jackson Rasmussen was the only other Vandal to get into double-digits. He had 11 points with five rebounds. Rasmussen shot 5-of-13 from the field, was 0-of-3 from outside and made one of his two free throw attempts.
On Portland State's side, Terri Miller Jr. was the difference maker. He totaled 29 points, most of which came in the paint. Miller also had five rebounds, four assists and one block.
The Vandals gave up 38 points in the paint and struggled against Miller. Pribble said that the Vandals will have to get much better against Miller in future matchups, but said it was not a terrible performance from his defense.
"Believe it or not, against Portland State, 38 points (in the paint) isn't a terrible number," Pribble said. "It needs to be better for us. That's a huge part of where they score their baskets, and it's Terri Miller, right? So, taking away his right shoulder (and) left hand is a big part of the game plan. I thought our front court has been very big and physical, but we didn't do a great job tonight of taking away his strength."
The Vikings' Jaylin Henderson also played well with 13 points, three rebounds, five assists and one steal. He shot 5-of-13 from the field and was a perfect 3-of-3 from the line.
Tre-Vaughn Minott contributed 12 points and six rebounds for PSU.
What's next?
The Vandals walk away from this game knowing they just went toe-to-toe with the top team in the Big Sky Conference.
Alex Pribble said the team exits this loss with "a little bit of a sense of confidence."
"I don't mean it as an arrogant statement, but I mean it as a positive statement; we do feel like we can beat that team," Pribble said. "And so there hasn't been a team that we've played yet this year that we don't feel like we can't beat, and that's what we want to be."
Idaho will continue Big Sky Conference play, visiting Northern Colorado at 6 p.m. Pacific on Thursday with a broadcast on ESPN+.
PORTLAND STATE (13-5, 7-0)
Miller 11-19 5-8 29, Minott 6-9 0-1 12, Dupre 1-2 0-0 3, Henderson 5-13 3-3 13, Kensie 0-3 2-2 2, Phipps 1-3 1-2 4, Williams 1-3 0-0 3, Long 1-1 0-0 3, Downing-Rivers 0-0 0-0 0, Chukwu 0-1 0-0 0, Tidor 0-0 0-0 0, Barron 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-54 11-16 69.
IDAHO (12-8, 4-3)
Rasmussen 5-13 1-2 11, Rowbury 1-3 1-2 3, Johnson 4-12 8-10 20, Mitchell 1-5 0-1 2, Payne 3-6 0-0 7, Brickner 7-9 6-8 22, Joba 0-1 1-2 1, Blassingame 0-1 0-0 0, Sevilla 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-51 17-25 66.
Halftime — Portland State 33-26. 3-Point Goals — Portland State 6-13 (Miller 2-5, Long 1-1, Williams 1-1, Dupre 1-2, Phipps 1-2, Henderson 0-1, Kensie 0-1), Idaho 7-24 (Johnson 4-9, Brickner 2-3, Payne 1-4, Blassingame 0-1, Joba 0-1, Rowbury 0-1, Mitchell 0-2, Rasmussen 0-3). Fouled Out — Joba. Rebounds — Portland State 28 (Kensie 8), Idaho 32 (Johnson, Brickner 6). Assists — Portland State 12 (Henderson 5), Idaho 10 (Mitchell 6). Total Fouls — Portland State 23, Idaho 16. A — 2,366 (4,200).
Junt can be reached at 208-848-2258, tjunt@lmtribune.com or on X @TrevorJunt.
