The Sports Xchange
Nov 24, 2017
Butler forced Portland State's Deontae North to take an off-balance 3-pointer in the closing seconds and held on to beat the Vikings 71-69 on Friday in the PK80 tournament in Portland, Ore.
North brought Portland State within 71-69 on a 3-pointer with 41 seconds left, and then got the ball back after an offensive foul on Butler's Kamar Baldwin, but the Bulldogs rebounded North's late miss.
The Bulldogs led by seven on Baldwin's jumper with 1:14 to go.
Tyler Wideman made 9 of 10 shots and led Butler with 18 points. Kelan Martin added 16 for the Bulldogs.
North, who came off the bench, led the Vikings with 18 points. Michael Mayhew scored 17 points and Bryce Canda added 14 points and six rebounds for Portland State.
Butler shot better than 50 percent but couldn't shake the Vikings.
Brandon Hollins made a free throw with 4:25 left to bring Portland State within 63-62.
The Bulldogs outscored the Vikings 9-4 to start the second half, but Portland State cut the Butler lead to 59-57 on a layup by Holland Woods with 8:36 left.
Butler shot much better in this first half, but the Vikings continued to hang around.
In Thursday's loss to Texas, the Bulldogs hit just 33 percent of their shots.
Butler made 15 of 26 field goals and led 38-34 at halftime on Friday.
Portland State made six 3-pointers to keep it close, despite missing 8 of 9 shots to end the first half.
Butler will play Stanford or Ohio State on Sunday. A Buckeyes' win would pit new their new coach, coach Chris Holtmann, against the Bulldogs, Holtmann's former team, something he called a "worst-case scenario" last week.