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Portland, OR - Ako Kaluna scored 13 of his career-high 18 points in the second half as Northern Arizona ended Portland State's home-court winning streak at seven games, taking a Big Sky Conference contest, 73-60, at the Stott Center.
Kaluna played a big part in NAU's best shooting night of the season. The 'Jacks entered the game shooting a poor .397 as a team for the season, and had never shot better than .472 prior to facing Portland State. But on this night they hit 28-53 from the field for a .528 mark and had a number of rallies to hold the Vikings off.
Meanwhile, PSU suffered through another poor shooting performance, making only 22-56 for a .393 percentage. The Vikings were also out-rebounded 38-27 in the game.
Portland State fell to 7-5 on the season, 1-1 in the Big Sky. The Vikings had won all five homes games this season and seven straight dating to last season.
Northern Arizona improved to 6-9 overall, 1-1 in the Big Sky.
The Vikings led 8-4 early, then went 7:16 without making a field goal, and would never lead again. The Lumberjacks climbed into the lead and eventually led by 10 at 27-17 with 7:33 left in the half. NAU went into halftime with a 34-27 lead.
A 10-3 spurt to start the second pushed Northern Arizona to a 44-30 lead. The Vikings came back with a 14-3 run and trailed only 47-44 with 11:27 to go in the game. Again, NAU ran off 10 points in a row, including three-pointers by Kaluna and Quinton Upshur.
Northern Arizona got the lead back to double digits, then did their best to milk the clock on every possession before putting up a shot. That meant going inside to Kaluna on numerous occasions. The 6-foot-7 post made 6-8 shots in the second half and NAU outscored Portland State 36-20 in the paint.
Kris Yanku directed the NAU offense to great effect, handing out 11 assists to go with 13 points and seven rebounds. Jordan Martin added 12 points and nine rebounds.
Viking guard Gary Winston scored 18 points for the second consecutive game. Braxton Tucker scored 12 points and grabbed a season-high 11 rebounds. Tiegbe Bamba was also in double figures with 12 points.
GAME NOTES:
• The Vikings have now shot under .400 from the field in five games this season.
• PSU is 5-1 at home, 2-4 on the road.
• Northern Arizona has won four straight games and eight of the last 11 against Portland State.
• Portland State makes its first Big Sky Conference road trip next week. The Vikings play at Northern Colorado on Thursday night at 6:05 p.m. PT. On Saturday, PSU faces North Dakota in a Noon PT game. Live video, audio and stats for both games are available at GoViks.com by clicking on the Game Day Box.
