Behind Stutzman’s 18 points, Idaho State holds off Northern Arizona

POCATELLO, Idaho — Jared Stutzman finished with 18 points and eight rebounds to help Idaho State hold off Northern Arizona 64-60.

Novak Topalovic added 11 points and seven boards and Balint Mocsan scored 10 for the Bengals (8-6, 3-0 Big Sky Conference), who upped their win streak to four and won for the eighth time in nine games. Idaho State is 3-0 in conference play for the first time since the 2006-07 season when they opened 5-0.

Gino Littles scored 22 to pace the Lumberjacks (3-14, 0-4), who have lost five in a row and eight of nine. Jojo Anderson scored nine of his 11 points in the final four minutes, 11 seconds.

The Bengals led 26-20 at halftime and Topalovic’s dunk sparked a 9-0 run early in the second half to push the lead to 35-24. Anderson hit three free throws to pull the Lumberjacks within 54-50 with 4:31 left to play.

Brandon Boyd scored all seven of his points over the next 2:22 to put the Bengals up 63-54. But Anderson hit a three and three more free throws to cut the deficit to 63-60 with 53 seconds left. NAU had a chance to tie but turned the ball over and Stutzman hit 1-of-2 free throws with one second left to preserve the win.