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GREELEY, Colo. – Lauren Oosdyke turned in a career performance and Northern Colorado controlled the paint all night in defeating visiting Portland State, 72-60, on Thursday evening in Big Sky Conference action.
Oosdyke poured in a career-high 28 points, with many of her buckets coming inside, and the Bears outrebounded PSU 45-29 while owning a 44-26 advantage in points in the paint.
The Vikings fought back from a big first half deficit to get within three late in the contest, only to watch Northern Colorado get hot down the stretch.
The game was tied six times in the first 10 minutes, but when D'shara Strange grabbed an offensive rebound for an easy putback at the 9:02 mark of the first half the Bears went in front for good, 21-19.
Northern Colorado (7-9, 2-1 Big Sky) took it's largest lead of the period, 37-23, on a layup by Oosdyke, before
Kelli Valentine hit a 3-pointer to pull the Vikings back within nine. UNC eventually went into halftime with a 38-28 advantage.
PSU slowly chipped away at the lead coming out of the break and the Vikings were able to get within 43-40 after
Stephanie Egwuatu made two free throws at the 13:29 mark. Northern Colorado responded, though, with a 12-6 run and Portland State wasn't able to recover.
Valentine led the Vikings with 22 points on 9 of 11 shooting and added eight boards.
Courtney VanBrocklin chipped in 13 points and nine rebounds for PSU.
Oosdyke and Strange combined to go 16 of 26 from the floor, with Strange scoring 15 points. Brown led players with 10 rebounds for the Bears.
Portland State (7-8, 0-2 Big Sky) returns to action when they host Idaho State on Monday, Jan. 17. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
NOTES: UNC has won three in a row in the series after PSU had won five of the previous six meetings ... Egwuatu blocked a career-high two shots for the Viks ... Valentine's 81.8 percent shooting was a new career-best ... Valentine and VanBrocklin both had two steals ... 17 of Northern Colorado's 45 rebounds came on the offensive end.
