Lumberjacks Push Eastern Washington Until the End in 66-60 Big Sky Quarterfinal Defeat

BOISE, Idaho (March 11, 2021) – Starting at the preseason conference favorite and the Big Sky Tournament's No. 2 seed, the Northern Arizona men's basketball team did not back down. However, despite outshooting Eastern Washington, 10th-seeded NAU came up just short of an upset in a narrow 66-60 quarterfinal loss Thursday night in Idaho Central Arena.
 
The Lumberjacks shot 44.4 percent for the game, while the Eagles shot 41.5 percent, but Eastern Washington held two significant scoring advantages to offset the percentages. The Eagles made eight threes to the Lumberjacks' four – although both teams shot under 30 percent behind the arc – in addition to making 10 more free throws than the Blue & Gold.
 
With the loss, NAU concludes its season at 6-16 overall. The season did not come to an end though without the Lumberjacks logging their first conference tournament victory in six years.
 
"It's been a great couple of days in Boise, but it's always disappointing ending the season like this when there's no postseason for us," said head coach Shane Burcar. "We were right there and had so many opportunities, but I'm really happy with how we ended the season. This tournament will keep us hungry."
 
Coming off a 77-66 first round victory on Wednesday over Portland State, the Lumberjacks' offense was cold for most of the first half. Fortunately, so were the Eagles (14-7) to start the night.
 
Both teams got off to a slow start offensively and despite making just four of its first 13 shots, NAU led 10-5 nine minutes into the contest on consecutive buckets by redshirt junior Luke Avdalovic and redshirt sophomore Keith Haymon.
 
Playing their first conference tournament game in two years, the Eagles finally settled in and got rolling making 10-of-13 from the field after starting the evening by missing seven of their first nine attempts.
 
Utilizing the deep ball, Eastern Washington drained five threes during the stretch to open up its largest lead of the half, 32-20, with 3:52 to play before the intermission. The Lumberjacks did not waver though as redshirt junior Nik Mains scored on three straight possessions to slice the deficit in half.
 
In all, NAU made six of its final seven shots of the first half to go into halftime trailing, 37-30. Avdalovic, who led three double-digit scoring Lumberjacks with 12 points on the evening, paced the team with 10 points before the half.
 
Although the Lumberjacks were unable to close the gap in the second half, they remained within striking distance for all of it. With 10 minutes remaining in the game, NAU trailed 52-44 following a layup by sophomore Ajang Aguek and NAU got as close as six with 2:24 remaining when redshirt junior Nik Mains drilled a three on a second-chance opportunity to make it a 59-53 game.
 
The score remained the same as the game clock struck one minute remaining, when the Eagles snagged a crucial offensive rebound which led to two free throws to push it out o an eight-point lead. The 'Jacks got within six on two more occasions on buckets by junior Cameron Shelton before sophomore Charles Burns closed the book on the season with a three to reach the final score.
 
"You want to win every tournament, every game that you play and we never lost sight of that," Burcar said. "The biggest thing that we have here now is there is more than hope. There are more than words. There has been some production and a first round win for the first time since 2015. My confidence is even stronger even though our record because I can see what we're doing and what we need to do to improve."
 
After allowing six threes in the first half, NAU allowed Eastern Washington to make just two triples in the second half as part of an overall 34.6 percent shooting clip in the final 20 minutes.
 
Overall in the final two games of the season, NAU's two tournament opponents posted the Lumberjacks' lowest two field goal percentages.
 
Behind Avdalovic's 12 points, Shelton and Mains both scored 11 while Haymon and Aguek added seven apiece. Shelton led the tam with seven boards and five assists and Mains registered six boards and two of NAU's seven steals.
 
"We're hungry; yesterday I got my first (tournament) win in four years," Avdalovic said. "We got a taste of winning, and it was just the first round, but we're hungry and we know what we're capable of. We know the type of guys we have in the locker room."
 
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