Griz 98, PSU 77

[FootballGuru]

Speaking of Mayes, after seeing him come in last night and dominate, is there anyone else here that is wondering WHY he isn't a starter???? Seems to me this guy could be our star player.

Anyone else take note that we went from about a 6-8 point lead to a 20 point lead with Mayes, Swift, Ellis, Martin, Chavis and a couple other bench players mostly in there and the starting 5 on the bench?

Portland State is not as deep as the Griz. PSU shot lights out in the first half, but lost their legs in the 2nd half, the same shots weren't falling for them. And the Griz suffered no drop off in talent with the "Bomb Squad" (bench) coming in with fresh legs.

2nd teamers have been battling hard all week in practice for playing time, Coach Krysto felt they all deserved the added playing time. The Griz are finally a deep team! :dance:

 

[FootballGuru]

“They just kept coming off the bench with guys I've never even heard of,” said Bone, in his first season at Portland State. “They did an outstanding job. It's not like they dropped off at all.”

“I don't know that I've been involved in something quite like that - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,” Krystkowiak said. “We split the teams up. We didn't have the starters against the Bomb Squad. It was so competitive. Those guys deserved a chance to play.”

“It felt good to play against someone other than your teammates,” said Mayes, a transfer from Grand Rapids (Mich.) Community College. “I felt a little rusty at first, but once I got into the rhythm, it was just playing basketball. I've been doing it my whole life.

“Coach tells us to play hard and good things come. We had the best week of practice we've ever had and he couldn't sit everybody. I think our best basketball is getting ready to come.”

There's still plenty of room for improvement. The Griz allowed the Vikings to shoot 60 percent in the first half - 7-for-12 from 3-point range - and led just 51-45 at the break. Center Anthony Washington had 12 of his team-high 15 by intermission. Juma Kamara had 10, but didn't score in the second half.

“It was all pretty obvious, the kind of stuff that took place,” Krystkowiak said. “Portland State had the tempo set nicely. They'd wind you up for 25 seconds, then a couple of quick passes and ... then they'd hit a three.”

But the Vikings failed to connect on seven attempts from long range in the second half and made just nine field goals after the break.

“I don't know if we lost our legs or what,” said Bone, whose team shot 35 percent in the second half. “We shot very well the first half, good enough to stay in the game. In the second half we weren't making shots, but I think a lot of the credit goes to Montana's defense. I thought they stepped it up a notch.”

The Griz face Eastern Washington and talented freshman Rodney Stuckey on Saturday. They should do it with reasonably fresh legs; no one played more than 27 minutes against the Vikings.

“That's the idea of having some depth,” Krystkowiak said.