Daily Vanguard

December 6th, 2007

Viks beat LC. So what?

The Vikings nearly lost to a Division III team last night. Yes, that’s right. Portland State barely edged out the Lewis and Clark Pioneers, a team that is ranked two divisions below Portland State.

Despite the unimpressive outing, the basketball gods seemed to be on PSU’s side, as the Vikings came away with a one-point win against Lewis and Clark, which plays in the Division III Northwest Division.

The win wasn’t due to any heroics on the Viking’s part though. And you could hardly call the game against the Pioneers a victory—the Vikings were up by 12 points at half time, and let their game-high 18 point lead slip to nearly nothing with only one minute left on the clock.

The heavily-favored Vikings only pulled out the win because the Pioneers guard Gene Rivera missed a desperation 3-pointer after stealing the ball from PSU’s Jeremiah Dominguez with nine second left, as reported by The Oregonian.

It was an odd night in general. The Vikings and Pioneers were playing at the Rose Garden because the Stott Center main gym was flooded last week.

Vikings center Scott Morrison didn’t play in the game due to a sore back, which The Oregonian report said could have contributed to the close call in part. It also noted that starters Andre Murray and Deonte Huff left the game with a sprained ankle and due to fouling out, respectively.

But you know what the worst part of the night was? By mid-way through the first quarter, when I left the game, there were at least as many, if not more, Lewis and Clark fans in attendance as PSU fans. And they were louder than the PSU fans. They actually established a student section, or something that resembled one.

PSU literally has 12 times as many students as Lewis and Clark. I estimated that there were about 200 total people at the game—it wouldn’t surprise me if it was the smallest turnout the Rose Garden has seen for an organized event—and it seemed that half of them were from Lewis and Clark.

Sure, I know the adage, “Basketball is a game of runs.” But honestly, how do we expect to get people excited about Vikings athletics when the teams have a tough time handling a Division III team?

The Vikings were obviously the more talented team in the game. But talent only carries you so far. Even when the PSU second stringers were in part way through the first quarter, it was clear that they could easily handle the Pioneers attack.

But, again, a one-point win over a D-III school sure as hell isn’t a victory. And without some pointed effort for better conditioning and overall improvement in the next two days, the Vikings have a daunting task ahead of them as they travel to Pullman, Wash. on Saturday to take on the No. 8 Washington State Cougars.

And the Cougars surely aren’t a Division III squad. Just ask the eight teams, including No. 19 Gonzaga, Washington State has dominated thus far.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 4:15 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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