Ako Kaluna had 16 of his 22 points in the second half Tuesday in NAU's 75-65 loss to Illinois-Chicago.
CHICAGO -- Tai Odiase scored a career-high 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead Illinois-Chicago to a 75-65 win over Northern Arizona on Tuesday night.
Godwin Boahen scored seven of his nine points as the Flames (6-6) used an 11-point run to go up 47-34 with 14:05 to play and the Lumberjacks (3-10) never got inside double figures again.
The Flames reeled off their points in barely two minutes. Boahen had a 3-pointer to cap the run, the other four baskets were all layups.
"We just didn't play with confidence at times, and a lot of it was our own effort," NAU coach Jack Murphy said. "I thought the group that ended the game played their tails off, cut into the lead and executed offensively. I thought the first half was okay, but we didn't build on that for the majority of the second half."
Odiase went 8 of 10 from the floor and 8 of 12 from the line. Dominique Matthews added 11 points off the bench and Tarkus Ferguson had nine assists. The Flames shot 57 percent (16 of 28) from the field after the break.
Ako Kaluna had 16 of his 22 points in the second half, hitting four 3-pointers, for the Lumberjacks, who shot 33 percent in the game that was even other than NAU's 4:22 dry spell.
"The turnovers are becoming an issue," Murphy said. "We have to take care of the basketball. We need to be locked in because our next game is the 'first' of our season: Southern Utah at home. They're a very good ball club, and we've got to be ready to go on New Year's Eve."
