Oosdyke spurs another victory

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GREELEY, Colo. – A career-best 28 points from sophomore forward Lauren Oosdyke helped lead the Northern Colorado women's basketball team to its sixth-straight home win, a 72-60 victory over Portland State on Thursday evening.

Junior forward Kaisha Brown added a career-best 10 rebounds as the Bears improve to 2-1 in Big Sky Conference play and 7-9 on the year.

Oosdyke scored the team's first seven points of the evening and amassed 19 points by halftime, tying her output from the last game at Montana State.  Her 28 points in the game surpasses her previous high of 24 points which she totaled twice last year.

"Lauren Oosdyke was 7-for-10 in the first half," said Head Coach Jaime White. "She continued to keep having her best nights. I thought she did a nice job in transition and took advantage of attacking the basket."

The 28 points by Oosdyke was also the most for the Bears since Whitley Cox scored 31 against Sacramento State on Feb. 27, 2010. It is also the most scored by a UNC post player since Danielle Hagen tied the school record with 37 points against Portland State in the Big Sky Tournament on March 13, 2008. She also surpassed the 500-point career milestone and now has 516.

With the game tied at 19-19 in the first half, Northern Colorado went on an 18-4 run to build a 14-point advantage, 37-23 at the 4:07 mark and never trailed again.

"I thought we came back strong after a tough loss at Montana State the other night," said White. "This is the first week of school and it's been rough, and we're practicing in the morning a few times and that maybe helped us get our legs back under us."

Northern Colorado won the rebounding battle by 16, tallying 45 to PSU's 29. The Bears also had 17 on the offensive end of the floor with four each by senior center Brittany Fernandez and freshman forward Kim Lockridge. The 16-rebound margin is the third double-digit spread for the Bears this year, and is second behind the 20 board advantage against San Francisco.

"Kaisha's rebounds were good but her block outs were great," White stated. "She did a very nice job of getting a body on someone and helping others grab some boards too."

Freshman guard D'shara Strange was the only other Bear in double figures in the scoring column, chipping in 15. Senior guard Courtney Stoermer led the team with four assists, while Oosdyke, Strange and Lockridge each had two steals.

Portland State was led by senior forward Kelli Valentine with 22 points and eight rebounds, while sophomore guard Courtney VanBrocklin scored 13 and had a team-best nine boards. Senior guard Eryn Jones also had a game-high five assists.

The 12-point victory is the largest winning margin for the Bears against the Vikings in series history and is the third-straight win over Portland State.

The Bears host Eastern Washington on Saturday at 2:05 pm in Butler-Hancock. The Eagles were 88-72 victors over Sacramento State on Thursday evening.

"Congrats to our kids and hopefully Saturday we can come out and play even better," said White. "EWU is going to be tough. They have a lot of players back and I think it's going to be a battle. We have to be ready to go and play our game."