BOISE, Idaho – The six seeded Idaho Vandals (13-17, 11-9) dominated from start to finish to defeat the 11 seed Portland State Vikings (5-24, 0-20) 75-52 Monday night in the opening round of the Big Sky Conference Tournament.

Meeting for the third time in eight days the Vandals and Vikings were no strangers to each other.

Just five days ago, PSU began the game shooting over 60 percent from the field and 47 percent overall. The Vandals needed a career night from Beyonce Bea to come back and win. Tonight, in the Big Sky Tournament, The Vandal defense stepped up in a big way.

"Our main focus coming into this game was defense and defensive intensity," Head Coach Jon Newlee said. "We really needed to ratchet it up, playing these guys for the third time we knew them pretty well, but we really had to execute and we came out with a lot of defensive energy and set the tone early."

And early it was, on the first possession of the game, the Vandals forced PSU into a shot clock violation, the first of 15 turnovers on the night for the Vikings.

The Vandals held Portland State to just 31.1 percent shooting including an impressive defensive effort in the second and third quarters where they held PSU to just seven made field goals. For the game, the Vikings were just 2 of 17 from beyond the arc.
Offensively, The Vandals spread the ball around and had four players score in double figures. Louise Forsyth led the team with 20 points on 7 of 15 shooting. Tiana Johnson had a season-high 18 points and six rebounds.

"We knew they were going to zero in on Beyonce of course after she scored 40," Newlee said. "So we made some adjustments and were able to exploit some weaknesses in their zone and being able to play them for the third time this week I thought we were able to come out pretty good offensively."

Allison Kirby was 4 of 7 from 3-point range for 14 points while dishing out seven assists. Beyonce Bea recorded her eighth double-double of the season with a career-high 16 rebound and 12 point performance.

The Vandals shot 55.6 percent in the opening quarter and were 41.4 percent from the field for the game.

The Vandals will face the three-seed Southern Utah in the conference quarterfinals tomorrow, March 8. Tip-off from Idaho Central Arena in Boise, Idaho.

Follow the Vandals all season long on Twitter and Instagram, @VandalsWBB fans can also listen over the airwaves with the Voice of the Vandals, Doug Taylor, on the Vandal Radio Network and  GoVandals.com/Listen.