FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The freshman tandem of Amy Patton and Tyler Stephens-Jenkins helped Northern Arizona women's basketball to an 86-80 win over Portland State at the Walkup Skydome on Saturday. Patton posted her seventh double-double of the year with 25 points and 12 rebounds while Stephens-Jenkins turned in a career-high 23 points.

“To be at home and pull out a win against the team that was picked to finish first in the league is great,” said head coach Laurie Kelly. “I am very proud of our team. There was balance tonight in our scoring and we did a lot of things well.”

NAU (4-14, 2-3 BSC) has struggled at times this year to put together 40 minutes of consistent basketball. Even in its last second win over Weber State, the Lumberjacks needed to battle back from a 14-point deficit to pull out the victory. On Saturday, NAU played a close game throughout where neither team lead by more than seven points.

The game produced 11 ties and eight lead changes as the Lumberjacks needed a season-high 86 points to beat Portland State (9-9, 3-2 BSC) who was positioned in third place in the Big Sky Conference standings coming into Saturday's matchup.

“There were a lot of points scored and it was a close game for the majority,” said Kelly. It was probably a very exciting game from the crowd's perspective. It is a great win.”

The Lumberjacks trailed 35-31 at halftime despite outshooting Portland State 44.8-percent to 41.4-percent in the first half. NAU exploded in the second half for a season-high 55 points and 51.6-percent shooting from the field. The Lumberjacks turned in a season-best 48.3-percent on 29-of-60 shooting for the game.

“The performance of the freshman was outstanding,” Kelly said. “They gave us 48 points. I thought Tyler was big for us on both ends of the floor. Amy made some huge shots. We had four kids in double figures. Vickie (Toney) going to the line late and making free-throws was huge.”

Patton and Stephens-Jenkins provided 55.8-percent of NAU's points on Saturday night and were the only players in the game to put up 20-point efforts.

With the victory, NAU moves to 2-3 in the Big Sky, but plays its next three games on the road. After that stretch, the Lumberjacks will play six of its final eight games at home.

“Before the game started I told the players we needed to be the better team tonight,” said Kelly. “I felt like today could be the start of where our season turns around. At halftime we talked about free-throw shooting and rebounding. We came out in the second half and won by five on the glass and shot 85-percent from the free throw line.”

Our season is not about one game. As a team, you talk about how you can beat anybody but to finally do it is something different. We have a tough couple games ahead being away from home, but our league has a lot of parity and anything can happen.”

NAU's next game will be at Sacramento State (4-12, 0-4 BSC) on Saturday, January 23. The Lumberjacks will play only one game next weekend.