PORTLAND, Ore. - Down 27 points with almost half a minute remaining in the game, Idaho State coach Joe O'Brien waved the white flag.

Even though his Bengals possessed the ball with more than enough time to cut into Portland State's massive lead, he told Amorrow Morgan to dribble out the clock.

Not many coaches take that route, and O'Brien has always been a man who wants his players to go hard until the final buzzer. But at that point, O'Brien figured there was no point in trying to finish out the game with a basket. The Vikings had already proved they were much better Saturday by smacking around the Bengals 85-58 at the Stott Center.

"They were quicker, faster and played a lot harder than we did," O'Brien said. "They have better talent than the rest of the league does, and the score wasn't close."

O'Brien seemed much more at peace with this loss than he has with any season, likely because he knew Portland State was coming off its first tough loss of the year - an 80-66 beatdown at home by Weber State - and that the Vikings brought their best effort to the hardwood.

But Morgan, a junior guard who scored 10 points, was borderline enraged by the defeat. Some of that likely had to do with a halftime scuffle between the two teams that ended with a whole lot of shoving and the ejection of an inactive PSU player. Mostly, though, he simply felt embarrassed.

"We just got the hell beat out of us," he said.

He spoke in an upset tone, but also went Tim Tebow on the situation, guaranteeing that the Bengals would use this loss and a 71-65 loss at Eastern Washington two days ago as motivation to turn their season around.

"From now, we're going to be a totally different team," he said. "I promise you that. We didn't practice hard enough before this game or come out ready to play. It was awful. Starting with practice on Monday, things are going to be different. We're going to play a whole lot harder than this."

If Idaho State (4-13 overall, 1-2 Big Sky) still holds any hope of catching Portland State (13-5, 4-1) or Weber State in the conference standings, it will need an improved effort when it plays its next game against Montana on Thursday at Holt Arena.

Because on Saturday, the Bengals were torched from the get go.

Portland State opened the game by hitting its first six shots and taking a 14-4 lead.

It was a spurt Idaho State simply wasn't ready for. Jamie Jones, who scored 10 points, got it started with a hook shot, then Andre Murray (8) hit a 3-pointer, Kyle Coston (11) made a jumper, Phil Nelson (a game-high 23) slammed home back-to-back dunks and Jones finished the run with a layup.

Clearly, the Vikings were more focused than usual following a forgettable defeat.

"We had been thinking about that loss for two days," Nelson said. "We kept telling each other we couldn't lose two games in a row at home. We just couldn't."

Well, Portland State didn't. In fact, it went on to beat Idaho State convincingly.

Mainly, the Vikings did it by pestering the Bengals' guards for 14 costly turnovers.

"They didn't force us into a lot of turnovers, 14 isn't a boatload, but they took advantage of what they got," O'Brien said. "They went on to score 30 points off our turnovers. That is ridiculously efficient."

Still, Idaho State at least hung around until halftime by closing the first half on a 4-0 run to make the score 38-24. At least a comeback was still feasible.

But then a fight broke out while the two teams were trying to get to their locker rooms, and Portland State fed off the rumble more than Idaho State did.

Throughout the second half, Portland State drained jumpers - for the game, it made 57 percent of its shots from the field - and got busy on the glass with 28 rebounds. Portland State doesn't have the best big men in the league, but they were so quick that O'Brien pulled seven-footer Deividas Busma early because he couldn't keep up with them.

The Vikings also shared the ball impressively, always throwing quick passes to the open man for 17 assists.

Combined, it gave Portland State 85 points. Idaho State's low-octane offense would have needed two overtimes to hit that number.

Chron Tatum led the Bengals with 12 points, and the Bengals never got closer than 12 points after a Lucas Steijn jumper to start the second half. From then on, it was a blowout.

In the game's waning moments, Portland State reserves hit shot after shot, and the Vikings starters and fans loved every second of it.

Junior forward Felix Caspari, who played his best game of the season and scored 10 points, said the Bengals could put a stop to that by simply playing better at the start of games.

"It's strange, as a team we have to fall behind by 15 points before we come together and decide to pick it up," he said. "We need to play that way before we fall behind."

A lesson learned?

O'Brien certainly hopes so.

"There's not much we can take out of this game other than going back to Pocatello and trying to start over," he said. "I think this is a team that can still win 10 conference games, and with enough breaks, maybe win get a few more, but we've got to play better than we did today."