MISSOULA, Mont. (January 14, 2021) – The Northern Arizona men's basketball team was dominated in the first half, and despite a 16-0 second half run, the Lumberjacks came up short to Montana, 67-56, Thursday evening in Dahlberg Arena. The loss is NAU's third straight as the Lumberjacks now sit at 3-9 overall and 2-4 in league play.
"Right now, it's the same story for us; we get down in the first half and then we give it a try in the second half," said head coach
Shane Burcar. "That's unacceptable right now and our guys need to believe in themselves. We've got to keep grinding."
The Lumberjacks immediately found themselves in a 17-0 hole and trailed by as much as 27 in the second half. Holding a 58-31 lead with 13 minutes left, the Grizzlies went more than nine minutes scoreless during which the 'Jacks scored 16 straight, but NAU's initial deficit was too large to overcome.
In the final 35 minutes, NAU outscored Montana by six and the Lumberjacks won the second half by a 37-26 margin.
Still, Montana was off and running from the tip with an instant 7-0 lead before NAU called a timeout just 1:40 into the game. The timeout did nothing to slow down the Grizzlies as their run extended to 17-0 before junior
Cameron Shelton halted the game-opening run with a three at the 15:34 mark.
Before Shelton's trey, Montana had hit five of its first six shots from the field, including 4-of-5 from long distance. The Grizzlies never took their foot off the gas pedal with Montana dominating the first half and claiming a 41-19 halftime lead.
Montana shot 61.9 percent (13-of-21) from the field in the first period and drilled as many threes (6) as NAU had field goals at the intermission. A bright spot for the Lumberjacks was sophomore
Isaiah Lewis, who scored nine of his career-high 15 points before the half.
Montana's offense came down to earth though in the second half, especially during NAU's 16-0 run that brought the 'Jacks within 58-47 with 4:15 to play.
Sophomore
Ajang Aguek opened the run with a layup and redshirt sophomore
Keith Haymon knocked down a pair of treys in the spurt in which Montana missed 10 straight shots and coughed the ball up five times. After Montana snapped its drought, NAU converted just two more field goals the remainder of the contest.
NAU's offense picked up significantly in the second half with the Lumberjacks shooting 46.7 percent (14-for-30) following the intermission, but they still finished the game at just a 37 percent clip. Montana closed at 51.2 percent while outrebounding NAU, 34-30.
Shelton's eight-game 20-point scoring streak was snapped, but the captain wound up posting his first double-double of the season with 19 points and a career-high tying 10 rebounds. Shelton rounded out his stat line with five assists and a season-best four steals.
Lewis stepped up in lieu of NAU missing two starters due to injury, knocking down 3-of-4 behind the arc and scoring a career-high 15 points. No other Lumberjack netted more than six points though as NAU was just 9-for-26 from the deck outside of Shelton and Lewis' production.
With the victory, Montana evened its season mark to 6-6 and improved to 2-3 in the Big Sky.
NAU will look to put a halt to its three-game losing streak on Saturday as the teams reconvene in Dahlberg Arena at 11 a.m.
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