Jan. 31, 2004
Stats
Portland, OR -- Marquis Poole scored 19 of his 29 points in the second half as Idaho State won the back-end of a Big Sky road trip for the second time this season, defeating Portland State 80-71 and ending a six-year losing streak to the Vikings in Portland.
The Bengals survived a long first half drought to hold a slim three-point lead at the break. Up 20-12, Portland State went on a 16-0 run before ISU answered with a half-ending 17-6 run of their own, capped by a late three by Arzelle Lewis for a 37-34 lead.
Up 41-36 early in the second half, ISU used a 10-2 run to go up by 13, but Portland State cut it to five at 51-46. It could have been worse, but Poole hit a key shot, a long, banked heave for a three to beat the shot clock and give ISU an eight-point lead, and it never got below six after that.
"We kept that margin always at six or eight," said head coach Doug Oliver. "Give them credit, they did some things that forced us to do somethings, but we kept at it. I thought as a group we played awfully hard."
While ISU was outrebounded 38-28, they had another stellar shooting night, breaking 50 percent for the second straight game, shooting .526 for the night, and a blazing .750 from three on 8-of-12 shooting.
Oliver added, "Marquis was pretty good tonight. Right now we are just battling for nothing but wins to see where we are a month from now."
Leading the three barrage was Jeff Gardner, who was 5-for-8 and scored 17 points. Scott Henry had 12 and Nate Rede added 10 off the bench.
