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Portland, OR - DaShaun Wiggins led a fast start on the way to scoring 27 points and leading the Portland State Vikings to an 80-70 victory over North Dakota at the Stott Center.

It was a big win for the Vikings as they moved into a tie for fifth in the 12-team Big Sky Conference standings with Saturday night's opponent, Northern Colorado (12-13, 7-7). PSU is 13-11 overall, 7-7 in Big Sky play. 

Portland State jumped to a 21-9 advantage over North Dakota in the first seven minutes of the game. Wiggins hit his first three three-pointers to lead a 7-10 shooting start for the Vikings.

PSU struggled after that, making only 4-18 shots for the rest of the half. But they got to the line often enough (11-12) to maintain their lead. Wiggins had 19 points by halftime and the Vikings led 36-29.

Braxton Tucker led a 13-0 Portland State run to open the second half, hitting a three-pointer, a mid-range jump shot, then a fast-break dunk. PSU led 49-29 with 16:57 to play and appeared to have the game in hand. 

The double digit lead held for the next seven minutes, but UND slowly chipped away going on a 29-10 burst over the next 10 minutes. A fast-break layin by Josiah Coleman trimmed the Viking advantage to 59-58 with 7:22 to play.

For the second straight game though, Portland State made the key plays down the stretch to hold on for the win. Tiegbe Bamba scored nine points over the next five minutes as PSU built its lead back to 75-65 with 1:50 remaining. The Vikings made seven straight free throws in the last two minutes and North Dakota could draw no closer.

Viking Coach Tyler Geving pinned this Viking win on two simple traits: "Energy and effort. You have to come out and be ready to go. We preached it all week," said Geving. "Luckily in both halves we came out with energy. We made shots to start both halves and that gives you a little juice. One thing I am real happy about is that is the second game in a row we have held our opponents under 40% shooting."

"I told the team, we are going to be in more games that come right down to the wire and we have to execute, both offensively and defensively. We can't panic, we have to be positive and we did those things tonight," said Geving.

After his hot start, Wiggins cooled off a bit, but still managed the second-best scoring night of his career, making 7-16 from the field, 3-9 from three-point range and 10-10 at the free throw line. The senior guard also had six rebounds and three assists.

"DaShaun was really good tonight," said Geving. "I kind of knew he was going to play well today. He had confidence at shootaround and some swagger to him."

Bamba continues to dominate off the bench, scoring 17 points with nine rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot in 31 minutes. Tucker added 13 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots. 

PSU was 25-58 from the field (.431), 5-15 from three-point range (.333) and 25-28 at the line (.893).

North Dakota dropped to 8-17 on the season, 4-10 in the Big Sky. 

UND shot 26-68 from the field (.382), hitting 10-27 from three-point range (.370) and 8-12 at the line (.667).

Quinton Hooker scored 17 points to lead UND. He also had six assists and five blocked shots. Josiah Coleman scored 12 points with eight rebounds.

GAME NOTES: Portland State has won two in a row and is 8-3 at home this season… Zach Gengler had a career-high five assists… the Vikings had a season-high eight blocked shots… Gary Winston scored two points and is now six shy of 1,000 for his career… the Vikings beat North Dakota, 82-75, on Jan. 10 in Grand Forks… Portland State is at home again on Saturday night when the Vikings host the Northern Colorado Bears. Game time is 7:05 p.m. Live video, audio and stats are available at GoViks.com by clicking on the Game Day box.