Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
Portland State
Weber State Stuns League-Leading Portland State 80-66
1/8/2009 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The road giveth, the road taketh away. Just four days after sweeping Sacramento State and Northern Arizona on the road, the later a 92-91 four overtime affair, Big Sky Conference leader Portland State found itself on the receiving end as the Weber State Wildcats rolled into PSU's Peter W. Stott Center and stunned the Vikings 80-66.
The Wildcats got a big night out of red-shirt freshman forward KYLE BULLINGER (6-6, 210) who scored a career high 22 points, including 17 in the second half, one of four WSU players in double figure scoring. BULLINGER hit 8-10 shots from the field and was a perfect 5-5 from the three-point arc.
"That's the Kyle Bullinger I saw play in high school," said Rahe. "He's a gritty, determined player and can really score when he gets into a groove. He's made tremendous strides in the last three weeks."
Weber State took a 31-30 half time lead behind seven points from senior forward DAVIIN DAVIS (6-4, 190). The Wildcat defense held Vikings to just 39 percent shooting and only had four turnovers.
The Wildcats came out and quietly built up a seven-point lead (59-52) with 9:38 remaining, but quickly saw it dwindle to two on a five-point play by forward ANDRE MURRAY. He got a lay up at the 9:10 mark and was fouled by STEVE PANOS. The officials apparently heard something from the WSU bench they didn't like and called a technical foul as well and MURRAY made all three free throws to make it a 59-57 game.
Portland State, however, did not take advantage as the Vikings committed three straight turnovers which allowed the Wildcats to begin an 8-0 scoring run over the next three minutes. WSU got a hoop from BULLINGER and two free throws each from KELLEN McCOY (5-6, 180 Sr. Guard) and DAMIAN LILLARD (6-2, 180 Fr. Guard) making it 65-57 with 6:45 left.
A quick 4-0 run by the Vikings on baskets from PHIL NELSON and DOMINIC WATERS cut WSU's lead to 65-61 with 4:36 left, but that would be as close as the Vikings would come. The Wildcats scored six unanswered points on a hoop by LILLARD and two from sophomore center TREVOR MORRIS (6-9, 235) to take a 71-61 lead with 2:22 left.
Beginning at the 1:49 mark following a missed lay up by LILLARD, the Vikings missed three straight shots, getting two offensive rebounds in the flurry, but the last one was rebounded by KYLE BULLINGER who was then fouled by ANDRE MURRAY. It was just PSU's 6th team foul, but this time the official didn't like what they heard from the Portland State bench and slapped a technical foul on the Vikings with 1:33 remaining.
That began a string of 10 straight free throw attempts by the Wildcats over the next 41 seconds. They made nine straight with McCOY making two, MORRIS making two, DAVIS making four and finally with BULLINGER going 1-2 with 52 seconds left giving WSU the final 80-66 margin. ANDRE MURRAY missed a three-pointer, it was rebounded by DAVIIN DAVIS, but he then promptly had it stolen by JULIUS THOMAS who flipped it to JEREMIAH DOMINGUEZ. He missed a three, DAVIS cradled the rebound and the Vikings let the Wildcats run out the clock.
"As good as we played on offense, I was really proud of our defensive effort tonight," said Rahe. "I though Kellen did a nice job of guard Dominguez and didn't allow him to get comfortable all evening and Damian had a similar situation guard Waters. Both of those players have the ability to just take over a game, so that was really pleasing to see."
Portland State got 16 points each from ANDRE MURRAY and DOMINIC WATERS. Waters was last week's Big Sky Conference Player of the Week which included a 41-point out burst in PSU's 92-91 four overtime win at Northern Arizona. JEREMIAH DOMINGUEZ, the 2007-08 Big Sky Conference Newcomer of the Year and Player of the Year, had 11 points. The Vikings are now 12-5 overall and 3-1 in Big Sky play. It was PSU's first home court loss of the 2008-09 season.
DAMIAN LILLARD a first-year freshman, had his sixth straight double figure scoring game scoring 14 points and had a career high six assists. DAVIIN DAVIS had 11 points and four steals, while KELLEN McCOY scored 10 points including a perfect 8-8 from the free throw line. The Wildcats now move to 8-7 overall, 2-0 in Big Sky Conference action.
Next up, a Sunday, January 11 meeting at Eastern Washington on Altitude TV. Tip off at Reese Court vs. the Eagles is set for 1:05 p.m. (PST), 2:05 p.m. (MST).
NOTES: ... The Wildcats had their best ASSIST-TO-TURNOVER Ratio of the season with 15 assists and a season LOW nine turnovers. ... WSU has averaged 16.00 assists in its last three games after averaging just 10.1 in the first 12 games of the season. ... The Wildcats are now 11-32, 15-32 and 11-23 (37-87 .425) from the three-point arc in their last three games. ... The 14-point winning margin is WSU's largest in a victory over the Vikings IN PORTLAND since they joined the Big Sky Conference in 1996-97. ... Weber State has lost FIVE of its last SIX games in Cheney, Washington vs. EWU, and the only win was a 65-63 escape in 2004-05.
