Tempe, Ariz. (November 17, 2017) – The Northern Arizona men's basketball committed 24 turnovers, including 13 in the opening half, as it dropped a 97-62 decision at Arizona State on Friday night at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe.
The Sun Devils capitalized on the 24 miscues by the Lumberjacks for a total of 24 points while also winning the battle of the paint 42-24 to send NAU to its third consecutive loss to start the season. Arizona State moved to a perfect 3-0 with the victory.
"I was proud of how the guys responded after Monday's loss, which was the toughest loss of my career and I am sure was one of the toughest losses any of the players have experienced also," NAU head coach
Jack Murphy said. "I have to give Arizona State a ton of credit, they are a tremendous team. They came in and jumped on us right away. We had a lot of turnovers, especially early and I thought once we settled down and into the game we were able to some things to get better as a team. I saw some signs that will help us movinf forward that will be big advantages once we get into Big Sky play."
Junior
Karl Harris posted a team-high 15 points off the bench to lead the 'Jacks in the loss, while sophomore
JoJo Anderson added 11 points and finished a perfect 8-of-8 from the charity stripe. NAU's bench outscored the Sun Devils reserves 30-21 in defeat.
Romello White led a total of five Sun Devils who tallied double-figure points with 25 and hit on 10-of-12 field goal attempts. Shannon Evans II registered 20 and De'Quon Lake notched a double-double with 17 points and a game-high 12 rebounds in the win.
Kodi Justice connected on four shots from beyond the arc to finish with 14 points and Tra Holder added 12 to round out Arizona State's double-figure scorers.
NAU opened the game with five turnovers in the first 4:31 of game action to aid the Sun Devils, who opened an early 15-3 lead to take control. Justice dropped back-to-back three pointers in a span of 43 seconds midway through the opening half as Arizona State upped its advantage to 25-8 with 10:37 remaining before intermission.
The Lumberjacks trailed by as many as 27 in the opening half, which also marked ASU's largest lead of the game, before heading into intermission trailing by a 54-27 score.
Cold shooting hampered the NAU offense throughout as they hit on just two of their first 17 field goals attempts and finished the game 19-of-60 (.317) overall from the field.
NAU opened the second half with five straight points with a three-pointer by
Chris Bowling and a dunk by
Isaiah Thomas to cut the margin to 22 at 54-32, but would get no closer as the Sun Devils outscored the 'Jacks 43-28 the rest of the way to seal the victory.
The Lumberjacks continue their current road trip on Monday, Nov. 20 when they travel to Manhattan, Kansas, to battle Big XII Conference member Kansas State in a 6 p.m. MST tipoff that will be aired live on ESPN3 and the Lumberjack Radio Network.
