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BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- Western Washington University senior guard Taylor Stafford scored a game-high 26 points, with 21 coming in the second half, to lead the No. 23 Vikings to a 73-63 victory over Western Oregon Thursday night in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action at Whatcom Pavilion.

The Vikings (18-5, 12-3 GNAC) moved into a first-place tie in the GNAC with idle Alaska Anchorage, snapping a mini two-game losing streak. The Wolves had their five-game winning streak snapped to fall to 13-10 overall and remains in third place in the conference at 10-5.

Stafford (Chicago, IL/Evansville) overcame a slow 1-for-9 start from the field, igniting the Vikings in the second half with 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting (3-for-3 3-pointers). He also added 4 assists and 4 steals while playing 39 minutes. The senior guard is now averaging 21.9 points per game, while scoring 20 or more points in 13 of 23 games this season.

Junior forward Deandre Dickson (Easton, CA/Bakersfield College) gave a lift to the Vikings off the bench, contributing 18 points and 8 rebounds in 24 minutes. He was overall 5-for-9 from the field and 7-for-10 from the free throw line.

"Deandre and Taylor did a really good job tonight, but it was also a good team performance," said head coach Tony Dominguez. "Brett (Kingma) came in and gave us a lift and our zone defense helped us at the end."

Brett Kingma (Mill Creek, WA/Jackson) scored five consecutive points to turn a 47-49 deficit into a 52-49 lead with 10:22 remaining. From that point on, WWU would not relinquish its lead, pulling away from a one-point lead at 55-54 to gain a 10-point advantage at 68-58 by going on a 13-4 run.

The game settled into a back-and-forth affair from the tip, the 40 minutes of action featuring 13 lead changes and 8 tie scores. The Vikings shot 46.4% (26-for-56) from the field and were 7-for-17 from 3-point range (41.2%), while WOU was at 41.8% from the field (23-for-55). WWU limited the Wolves to just 4-for-17 from 3-point range.

Western Oregon was led by 20 points from Ali Faruq-Bey and 19 points from Tanner Omlid.

The first half featured 9 lead changes and 6 tie scores, with no team leading by more than 4 points. WWU used a balanced scoring attack to grab a one point lead at 31-30 with six players scoring at least 4 points. Senior Jeffrey Parker (Richmond, CA/Salesian) led the way with 6 points on 3-for-8 shooting, followed by 5 points apiece from Stafford (1-for-9 FG), Dickson and Trevor Jasinsky (RS Fr., F, Camas, WA). WOU was led by 11 points by Faruq-Bey (5-8 FG) and 9 points from Omlid (4-9 FG).

The second half opened with both teams going on 9-0 runs, first by the Wolves to take a 39-31 lead, then by the Vikings to retake the lead at 40-39. After Kingma sparked the Vikings with his back-to-back shots, WWU did not trail over the final 10:55 of the game. The Vikings shot 58.3% from the floor in the second half (14-for-24).

The Vikings return to action Saturday hosting Concordia (10-12, 6-9 GNAC) at 7 pm at Whatcom Pavilion.