No. 6 Montana State (14-16)
vs. No. 2 Portland State (22-9)
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Dee Events Center (12,000), Ogden, Utah
8:30 p.m. MDT
TV: ESPN2. Talent: Terry Gannon and Stephen Bardo.
Coaches: Montana State's Brad Huse is 40-50 in his third season with the Bobcats. Huse is 2-2 in Big Sky Tournament games, and this is his first championship game appearance. Huse compiled a 184-60 record in eight seasons at NAIA Jamestown College in North Dakota. Huse was an assistant at Montana in 2005 and 2006 when the Grizzlies won the Big Sky Championship…Portland State's Ken Bone is 75-48 in his fourth season with the Vikings. Bone is 4-2 in the Big Sky tournament. He guided PSU to the 2008 championship. Bone compiled a 258-118 record in13 seasons at non-division I schools, including 12 years at Seattle Pacific. Bone is 5-2 vs. Huse.
What's next: The winner earns the Big Sky's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The 65-team field will be announced on Sunday at 4 p.m. on CBS.
Season Series: The teams split the season series with each winning on their home court. Montana State beat Portland 85-82 on Feb. 1 in Bozeman. Will Bynum scored 24 points, and Divaldo Mbunga had 12 points and eight rebounds for the Bobcats, who shot .561 percent from the field. Dominic Waters came off the bench to score a team-high 19 points for Portland State. Julius Thomas added 17 points off the bench….Portland State won the second game 64-58 on Feb. 25 in Portland. Jeremiah Dominguez scored 17 points and hit five 3-pointers for PSU. Bynum was the only Bobcat in double figures with 16 points.
Previous Championship Meetings: This will be the second meeting between the two in the championship. Portland State beat Montana State 96-71 in a 2007 first-round game in Portland to advance to the semifinals in Ogden. Montana State's Branden Johnson and Erik Rush, and Portland State's Kyle Coston and Julius Thomas are the only four players who played the 2007 meeting who will play tonight.
Big Sky Championship History: Portland State is 5-6 all-time in the tournament, winning the championship over Northern Arizona in 2008. PSU is in the tournament for the fifth straight season. Montana State is also in the tournament for the fifth straight season. MSU is 15-21 in the tournament with two titles (1986 and 1996) and tow second-place finishes (1988 and 1998).
Notes: Montana State is looking to become the first No. 6 seed to win the tournament since 1986, when the Bobcats upset Montana…Idaho State won the tournament as a seventh seed in 1987. Boise State in 1994 and Montana in 2002 are No. 5 seeds who've won the tournament…Portland State is looking to become the first team since Montana in 2005 and 2006 to win back-to-back championships…PSU's Kyle Coston scored 14 points in last year's championship game, and Andre Murray added 13. Dominguez had nine points and four steals…MSU's Divaldo Mbunga has eight blocks in two tournament games this year. He needs four to tie the tournament record of 12 set in 1994 by Boise State's Jon Coker…Portland State has an RPI of 117 as of Wednesday morning. Montana State’s RPI is 212.