FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. –  Ako Kaluna had probably the best game of his career but it wasn't enough to carry Northern Arizona to victory as the Lumberjacks fell to Southern Utah 69-59 in the regular season home finale at the Walkup Skydome.

"We missed a lot of open shots and that's not going to win you ball games," said head coach Jack Murphy. "Southern Utah on the other hand made its shots and that's how it managed to stay ahead of us. As a coach it's tough to see us come out and play like this after two good games last week."

For Southern Utah (5-21, 3-13 BSC), it did what it hadn't managed to do since 2013 and that's beat the Lumberjacks. NAU had won five straight games over the Thunderbirds before tonight. SUU managed a 37-28 halftime advantage after committing only three turnovers and scoring 10 points off NAU turnovers.

In the second half, NAU (5-22, 3-13 BSC) had decent ball control only committing four turnovers, but it just couldn't knock down shots. The Lumberjacks went 9-for-28 in the half and connected on 2 of 11 three-point attempts. The Thunderbirds weren't much better at knocking down shots, they just attempted less.

Both teams made 17 of 22 free throw attempts for the game, while the Thunderbirds produced 44 bench points to NAU's 12.

The Lumberjacks came to within one point with 3:40 to go after a Kaluna made layup, and a minute and a half later they were only down by two after Kaluna made a free throw. The Thunderbirds made five of eight free throws down the stretch and even added a three-pointer as an exclamation point with 51 seconds remaining to claim the 10-point victory over NAU.

Christian Thompson led all Thunderbirds with 16 points off the bench, while Trey Kennedy added 14 points. John Marshall netted 14 points, including 10 of 12 from the charity stripe.  

NAU will travel to Portland State (Mar. 3) and Sacramento State (Mar. 5), before continuing on to Reno for the Big Sky Championships.