SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Dec. 9, 2017) – The Northern Arizona men's basketball team was held without a point for the opening 8:28 of the contest and fell behind 15-0, before dropping a 79-51 decision at the University of San Diego on Saturday night at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.
The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for the 'Jacks, who now slip to 2-8 overall, while San Diego posted its second-consecutive victory to improve to 7-2 on the season.
"Obviously you have to tip your hat to San Diego," NAU head coach
Jack Murphy said. "They are a great ballclub and we knew that coming in. Defensively, they had a good game plan on how to keep our guards out of the paint and limit our open looks. I thought in the second half we did a much better job putting pressure on them and getting the ball inside even though we didn't convert."
The Lumberjacks struggled from the outset on both ends of the floor as they committed nine turnovers in the first seven minutes of the game and finished with 12 in the first half and 19 overall for the 40 minutes. San Diego capitalized on those miscues with 20 points and used them to manufacture an increased number of transition opportunities and open three-point opportunities.
"Our turnovers continue to be an issue and some of those were shot clock violations due to good defense and some were just pick sixes and those absolutely break your back, especially when you struggle to score," Murphy added.
San Diego showed off its long-distance shooting prowess in establishing the early advantage as nine of its 13 first-half field goals came from behind the arc. The Toreros limited the 'Jacks to just three total field goals in the opening 20 minutes of action as they rolled to a 38-18 advantage at intermission.
The scoring drought continued in the second half as San Diego ripped off a 17-4 run over the first 9:15 to open a convincing 55-22 advantage.
The first half saw the Lumberjacks convert on just 3-of-20 field goal attempts (15.0 percent), but Northern Arizona did connect on all 10 attempts from the free throw stripe. San Diego hit on 13-of-29 of its shots from the field, including making 50.0 percent (9-of-18) of its opportunities from beyond the three-point arc in opening the 20-point advantage at the break.
Senior guard
Gino Littles was a bright spot in the loss for the 'Jacks as he was one of three Lumberjacks to finish with a team-high 11 points by making 4-of-9 shots, two of which were three-pointers. Junior
Torry Johnson and sophomore
JoJo Anderson each chipped in 11.
San Diego finished the game with a total of 13 treys and were led by Cameron Neubauer, who made 4-of-5 shots from long distance in totaling a game-best 17 points. Isaiah Pineiro added 16 and Tyler Williams added 11.
The 51-point output by Northern Arizona marked its lowest point total since registering 49 at Idaho on Jan. 21, 2017 and its 26.7 percentage (12-of-45) from the field was its lowest since a 23.7 percent clip against CSU Bakersfield on Dec. 5, 2016.
The Lumberjacks, who had played the 23
rd-toughest schedule in the nation entering Saturday's meeting with San Diego, have now lost eight of the last nine meetings vs. the Toreros.
Saturday's contest also marked NAU's eighth game away from home over the initial 10 contests of the 2017-18 campaign.
Northern Arizona will return home to face South Dakota on Thursday, Dec. 14 at the Rolle Activity Center in a 6:30 p.m. MST tip.
The 'Jacks-Coyotes matchup will also be broadcast live on the Lumberjack Radio Network beginning with the pregame show at 6 p.m. MST.
