SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (Dec. 21, 2018) – The Northern Arizona men's basketball team held the lead for over five minutes and stayed within one possession for the majority of the first half before falling by a 76-62 margin at the University of Utah on Friday night.
Junior
Brooks DeBisschop finished with a career-high 16 points and added seven rebounds while making 7-of-8 shots from the field. Freshman
Luke Avdalovic dropped in four treys en route to a 15-point scoring performance. Avdalovic has now made a total of 14 three pointers over the last three games.
"For our team to move forward and improve our team has to learn from games like tonight where we had to battle it out against a tough team in a hostile Pac-12 environment," NAU head coach
Jack Murphy said. "In order for us to improve, that lesson had to be learned and I believe it was by the players who were out on the floor tonight. That will only make us better as we head into Big Sky Conference play."
The opening half featured a total of five lead changes and five ties – all in the opening 13 minutes.
The Lumberjacks (2-8) hung tough early as they either led or trailed by fewer than three points until the final seven minutes before the break. NAU held the lead as late as the 8:07 mark of the first half before Utah put together a 20-11 spurt and made five of the final seven shots from the field, including a three-pointer at the buzzer by Parker Van Dyke, to cruise into halftime holding a 38-30 edge.
The Lumberjacks made an attempt to grind their way back in the opening moments of the second half before Utah opened a double-digit lead three shots from beyond the three-point line in a span of 2:09 to give it a 17-point edge at 51-34.
DeBisschop led a surge for the 'Jacks by scoring 10 of the team's 13 points over a four-minute spurt, but the three's kept dropping for the Utes, who connected on a total of five treys in the second half in running their lead to as much as 21 points.
"It was a really good performance by Brooks (DeBisschop) tonight," Murphy said. "I am proud of him for his play on both ends of the floor. He was very active defensively getting three steals but he had so many more deflections with his active hands."
The loss extended the Lumberjacks' current losing streak to seven consecutive games. Utah improved to 6-5 with the win.
The Lumberjacks will have a week off before returning to action on Saturday, Dec. 29 when they host the University of Montana at the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome in the Big Sky Conference opener. Tip time is slated for 2 p.m. MST.
The 'Jacks-Grizzlies contest will be televised live on Pluto TV (Channel 239). It can also be heard on the Lumberjacks Radio Network beginning with the pregame show at 1:30 p.m. MST.
