Laid-back victory

Blame it on Texas.

With the Longhorns lurking on the immediate horizon as the next big-name school on their demanding schedule, the Gonzaga Bulldogs played on Thursday night like a team unwilling to give away any secrets.

The 22nd-ranked Zags showed up flat, stayed that way most of the evening and let Portland State hang around way too long for coach Mark Few’s comfort before mustering up enough late-game energy to put the stubborn Vikings away 69-51.

The non-conference basketball victory raised GU’s nation’s longest home-court winning streak to 44 and pushed the Bulldogs’ record in the McCarthey Athletic Center to 32-0. But the Zags’ indifferent effort was not what Few, or hardly any of those in another sellout crowd of 6,000, were expecting.

“I don’t think we ever really, as a staff, felt that comfortable with any facet of that game on offense or defense,” admitted Few, who must now ready his team – on another short turnaround – for Saturday’s noon showdown with Texas in the Hall of Fame Challenge in Phoenix.

“I thought Portland State came in here and did a nice job of being more aggressive than us, getting after us, spreading us out and kind of frustrating us a little bit. They deserve a lot of credit for their approach.

The Vikings (4-3) did a splendid job of keeping the tempo slow and to their liking, allowing the run-happy Zags (7-1) just one fast-break bucket.

They also battled to a near draw on the boards.

Despite shooting just 31.7 percent (19 of 60) from the field and making only 5 of 29 attempts from 3-point range, PSU was still hanging around with 6 minutes left in the game – which is when Dupree Lucas knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key to pull the Vikings within 55-48.

But GU, behind a pair of Matt Bouldin free throws and a Jeremy Pargo bucket sandwiched between two inside scoring moves by Sean Mallon, answered with an 8-1 run that finally decided the issue.

Bulldogs senior guard Derek Raivio led all scorers with 20 points, but scored only two of those after intermission. Sophomore forward Josh Heytvelt added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Zags, who also got 14 points from Mallon.

Still, the game had a strange feel throughout – for players and fans, alike.

“Some guys showed up and did what they had to do to help get a win,” said Heytvelt, who finished 6 for 13 against some nice defensive help on the part of PSU. “But, definitely, we weren’t all on the same page, and we didn’t have the effort we needed.

“Even in warm-ups, some of the guys were yelling and screaming to get other guys going and stuff, but everyone had kind of a dead look in their eyes.”

Raivio, after making 4 of 7 3-point tries and scoring 18 points to help GU carve out its 37-29 halftime lead, took only two shots in the final 20 minutes of the game and scored his only two points of the second half on a pair of free throws with just more than a minute remaining.

“I don’t know,” Raivio said when asked about his dramatic dropoff in production following intermission. “Some other guys were doing their thing, so I kind of took a back seat to them.

“And we won, so … “

Second-year Portland State coach Ken Bone was pleased with his team’s play, but not dazzled by its shooting – especially from long range.

“We felt like if we were going to have any chance, we needed to make perimeter shots,” he said. “It was not going to be easy to get the ball in the paint and score. We fought and battled, but the bottom line is, we didn’t make shots.

“I don’t know what we were, but it wasn’t good.”

“It was announced Gonzaga and Washington State universities will join six other teams at the 2007 Great Alaska Shootout Nov. 20-24.

Other teams entered are Butler, Texas Tech, Liberty, Michigan, Western Kentucky and host Alaska-Anchorage.

Gonzaga 69, Portland St. 51

Percentages: FG .317, FT .727. 3-Point Goals: 5-29, .172(Lucas 2-4, Kamara 2-8, Hafford 1-6, Sommer 0-4, Huff 0-3, Smith 0-2, Coston 0-1, Jenkins 0-1). Team Rebounds: 5. Blocked Shots: 4 (Huff 2). Turnovers: 18 (Lucas 4, Morrison 3, Huff 2, Sommer 2, Thomas, Kamara, Coston, Jenkins ). Steals: 4 (Morrison, Sommer, Lucas, Jenkins). Technical Fouls: None.

Percentages: FG .412, FT .783. 3-Point Goals: 9-16, .563 (Raivio 4-7, Mallon 2-2, Heytvelt 1-1, Altidor-Cespedes 1-1, Pargo 1-2, Bouldin 0-3). Team Rebounds: 1. Blocked Shots: 2 (Altidor-Cespedes 2). Turnovers: 17 (Heytvelt 4, Pargo 3, Raivio 3, Pendergraft 2, Kuso 2, Mallon, Altidor-Cespedes, Bouldin). Steals: 10 (Raivio 3, Pendergraft 3, Mallon 2, Altidor-Cespedes 2). Technical Fouls: None.

Halftime–Gonzaga 37, Portland State 29. A–6,000.