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Portland, OR - Portland State put together its most satisfying win of the season, knocking off first-place Northern Colorado, 80-57, in a Big Sky Conference game at the Stott Center. 

The Vikings led wire-to-wire, building a 21-point lead by halftime, and then leading by 20 or more for the entire second half.

It was PSU's third win in a row and fifth in six games. The Vikings are now 10-8 on the season, 5-4 in the Big Sky. That moves them into a tie for fourth in the standings. Northern Colorado (13-5, 7-2) falls into second place behind Weber State (8-1).

Kyle Richardson recorded a career-high 16 points on 7-9 field goals and 2-3 free throws for the Vikings. He also grabbed eight rebounds. Gary Winston scored 19 points on 7-12 from the field, 2-4 from three-point range and 3-3 at the line. He tied a career-high with six assists. 

Also in double figures for the Vikings was Marcus Hall with 17 points as he made 4-7 three-pointers.

Portland State's first half was perhaps its best of the season. The Vikings hit six of seven shots to open the game and jumped to a 14-4 lead. Winston scored five and handed out three assists in the opening flurry. A Brandon Cataldo free throw made it 22-7 by the 9:31 mark of the half. Portland State kept on rolling and Richardson's conventional three-point play at the 2:07 mark had PSU ahead 39-18.

By halftime it was 43-22 Portland State. The Vikings shot 14-23 from the field (.609), 4-7 from three-point range (.571), and 11-13 at line. 

Northern Colorado came into the game as the best offensive team in the Big Sky Conference, but they struggled to score. UNC made only 8-25 by halftime (.320), 1-10 from distance, and 5-11 at the line (.455).

The second half was no different as PSU led by as many as 27 points.

For the game, the Vikings' offense was about as efficient as could be. PSU shot a season-best .547 from the field, made 9-19 from long range (.474) and 13-17 at the line (.765). In addition, the Vikings committed only eight turnovers.

But it was Portland State's defense that Coach Tyler Geving was most excited about, "Defensively, we carried over the energy from the Eastern game (a Viking win on Monday), and if we can just bottle that up, we are going to win a lot of games. We are just played hard and that is fun."

Northern Colorado guard Tate Unruh was 1-9 from the field and 0-6 from three-point range. He averaged 12.4 points and had made 38 three-pointers entering the game.

"Andre Winston really answered the bell on that one (defending Unruh)," said Geving.

Northern Colorado was shooting .498 from the field and averaging 75.4 points for the season to lead the Big Sky in both categories. But the Vikings shut the Bears down, holding them to 22-56 (.393), only 2-15 from distance (.133) and 57 points.

Derrick Barden scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Bears. Tim Huskisson scored 10 points.

GAME NOTES: Portland State is now 9-3 at home this season… the two Viking posts were especially efficient on the night. In addition to Richardson, center Brandon Cataldo scored nine points and grabbed nine rebounds in 12 minutes of play. The two combined for 25 points (11-15 FG), 17 rebounds and two blocked shots in 39 minutes. "We'll take that every single night," said Geving… Marcus Hall continued his hot shooting at home. In the last five games, he is 22-33 from the field (.667), 18-26 from three-point range (.692) and 9-10 at the line (.900)… Portland State wraps up its four-game home stand on Saturday night when it hosts third-place North Dakota (9-10, 6-3). Game time is 7:05 p.m. at the Stott Center. Live video, audio and stats are available at GoViks.com by clicking on the Game Day box.