Big Sky Tournament: Win gives Sacramento State quarterfinal matchup with Eastern Washington

RENO, Nev. – Nick Hornsby and Marcus Graves combined for 29 second-half points and finished with 18 apiece to lead No. 7 seed Sacramento State to a 91-76 win over 10th-seeded Idaho State in the opening round of the Big Sky Conference tournament Tuesday night.

Trailing by two at the break, Sacramento State overtook the Bengals with a 16-3 run early in the second half to go up 63-54 with 9:07 to play and never trailed again. Eric Stuteville had six points in the go-ahead run and Izayah Mauriohooho-Le’afa had a 3-pointer.

Mauriohooho-Le’afa hit another 3 just more than 2 minutes later to stretch the advantage to 70-60 and Sacramento State led by double figures from there.

The Hornets (13-17) will play No. 2 seed Eastern Washington (21-10) in Thursday’s quarterfinal round. EWU defeated Sacramento State 77-72 on Feb. 2 in Cheney.

Justin Strings added 17 points and Stuteville finished with 10 for Sacramento State, which got 25 second-chance points to Idaho State’s two.

Ethan Telfair’s 22 points and 10 rebounds led three Idaho State (5-26) players in double figures.

Portland State 80, Northern Arizona 67: Deontae North scored 25 points and had three steals as the Vikings (15-15) shot 54 percent and forced 19 turnovers to defeat the Lumberjacks (9-23).

North made 10 of 15 shots and the eighth-seeded Vikings were 31 of 57 from the field. They advance to meet the Big Sky champion and No. 1 seed, North Dakota (19-9) – which beat Portland State in the regular-season finale on Saturday – in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

De’Sean Parsons added 14 points for Portland State with five rebounds and four assists.

Ako Kaluna led Northern Arizona with 18 points and Jordyn Martin scored 16 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. JoJo Anderson added 15 points and Marcus DeBerry 14 with eight boards.

The Vikings made 17 of 28 shots (61 percent) in a breakaway second half.