FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (January 27, 2022) – With games on deck with Portland State and Southern Utah, the Northern Arizona men's basketball team will approach the halfway point of the conference schedule. First up, the Lumberjacks will wrap up their extended homestand in the Walkup Skydome on Saturday at 2 p.m. versus the Vikings before making the short trip to Cedar City, Utah to face the Thunderbirds on Monday at 5 p.m. Both games will be streamed on ESPN+ and heard on the Lumberjack Radio Network.
The first 800 students at Saturday's game versus Portland State will receive this year's Kiss My Axe t-shirt.
Saturday's game will conclude a stretch of five games in the Skydome in 13 days and a longer stretch of seven consecutive home games in the month of January dating back to NAU's New Year's Day contest versus Eastern Washington. When the Lumberjacks tip-off versus Southern Utah on Monday, it will be the team's first road game since Dec. 20 versus No. 4/4 Gonzaga. After spending the entire month of January at home – sans Monday's game in Cedar City – as a result of scheduled, rescheduled and postponed games, NAU will play six of its next seven games on the road following Saturday's tilt.
The Lumberjacks will be aiming to conclude this critical stretch at home over the last two weeks with a 3-2 record, coming off a 70-65 victory over Sacramento State earlier this week. Led by sophomore
Jalen Cone's career-high 36 points, NAU used a game-altering second half run to pull past Sacramento State and ultimately up its record to 7-11 overall and 3-4 in the Big Sky. A win versus Portland State on Saturday would even the Lumberjacks' conference record .500 through eight games for just the second time in the last seven seasons.
Cone's 36 points set the new single-game high by a Big Sky Conference player this season, and it was also his second 30-point effort following a 33-point performance on the road at South Dakota last month. With two 30-point games this season, Cone is the first Lumberjack since JoJo Anderson (2017-18) to record multiple 30-point efforts in the same season. The last Lumberjack to post three 30-point games in a season was Ryan McDade in 2002-03.
Heading into Thursday's slate of Big Sky games, Cone leads all league players in points scored with 350. He also leads the conference in three-point makes (59), three-pointers made per game (3.28) and free throw percentage (86.6). Furthermore, Cone's team-leading scoring average of 19.4 ranks second in the Big Sky and his .421 three-point percentage is third.
Since his triple-double performance versus Embry-Riddle on Jan. 5, redshirt freshman
Carson Towt has not only continued to hold down the glass, but also has seen his assist total increase. Over the last five games, Towt is averaging 10.0 rebounds, including a pair of 14-rebound games, and a whopping 5.6 assists per game.
For the season, Towt ranks second in the league with 9.5 rebounds per game and 171 total rebounds, which place him 20th and 29th respectively nationally. Even more impressively, his 2.1 assist-to-turnover ratio in Big Sky games leads the entire conference.
When Portland State comes to the Skydome on Saturday, it will be the Vikings' first game in Flagstaff in over two years since NAU edged out a thriller, 84-82, on Jan. 25, 2020. The Lumberjacks defeated the Vikings in their only meeting last season, 77-66, in the first round of the Big Sky tournament in Boise, Idaho. The victory was the Lumberjacks' first conference tournament win in six years.
Coming up big for the Lumberjacks in Boise were redshirt sophomore
Keith Haymon, junior
Ajang Aguek and sophomore
Isaiah Lewis. Haymon scored 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting versus the Vikings, while Aguek made all four of his attempts from the field and grabbed five rebounds to go with 11 points off the bench. Lewis also came in reserve and recorded four points, six rebounds and three assists in the tournament win.
In fact, Lewis had three solid games (two versus Southern Utah and one versus Portland State) last season against this weekend's opponents. In the three combined games versus the Thunderbirds and Vikings last season, Lewis averaged 6.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists all off the bench. Redshirt junior
Nik Mains also starred against Southern Utah, averaging 18.5 points in two games while shooting 58.8 percent (10-of-17) from behind the arc.
Portland State is 4-12 overall and 2-6 in conference play heading into a home game versus Southern Utah on Thursday. The Vikings have dropped nine of their last 10 games overall although five of those losses have been by five points or less.
James Jean-Marie leads the Vikings in scoring at 12.9 points and in rebounding at 8.9 per game. Jean-Marie, who ranks third in the Big Sky in rebounding, does damage on the offensive glass ranking 11th in the country with 3.6 offensive boards per game. In addition to averaging 9.6 points per game, Khalid Thomas has tallied a team-high 27 steals at an average of 1.7 per game. The Vikings, who are 26th nationally with 9.0 steals per game, has four of the top 15 players in the league in terms of steals with Thomas leading the way.
On Monday, NAU will face Southern Utah, who handed the Lumberjacks a pair of losses last season en route to winning the Big Sky regular season title. The Thunderbirds were voted the preseason favorite to win the Big Sky and are 11-6 overall and 5-2 in the Big Sky.
Southern Utah, ranked 24th in the country in scoring offense at 79.6, has four players averaging at least 11 points per game led by John Knight III's 15.2. Knight III is shooting 55.6 percent from the field and is fourth in the Big Sky with 4.2 assists per game. Preseason Big Sky Most Valuable Player Tevian Jones is second on the team with 14.0 points per game while Maizen Fausett is averaging a team-high 8.8 rebounds to go with 13.4 points per game.
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