POCATELLO, Idaho (December 29, 2022) – The Northern Arizona University men's basketball team opened Big Sky Conference play this evening at Idaho State and could not overcome a hot-shooting Bengal squad and fell 79-53. With the loss, NAU drops to 4-10 overall and 0-1 in conference action while ISU improves to 4-10 and 1-0.
Three Lumberjacks scored in double figures, led by
Carson Towt with 15 points on 7-of-12 from the field. He also had a team-high five rebounds and three assists.
Xavier Fuller (13 points) and
Jalen Cone (10 points) rounded out the scoring.
Northern Arizona was held to a season-low 3-of-13 from three-point range and 20-of-50 from the field. The Bengals came out and made 28-of-52 from the field and 12-of-24 from three-point range. The Lumberjacks won the turnover battle, 8-to-12, but were out-rebounded 40-to-20.
"I have a million thoughts right now; a loss is a loss. We have to dig deep on this one and look in the mirror and I take full responsibility of it all. We have to get it fixed, and the main thing is to move forward and get better and handle the task in front of us. We'll go back to the hotel and watch some film and make some adjustments. We had some good opportunities early and things got away from us around the eight-minute mark of the first half," said head coach
Shane Burcar. "I'm surprised about the outcome. I didn't see this coming. We had a great week of practice when we came back and had a good four days, a good travel day, good juice in warmups and I didn't see this coming, but it did. We'll have to move forward. My message to the team is that I'll take responsibility, but if we all look in the mirror, we have a chance to fix things for our next game on Saturday. We're not talking about January and February, our next task at hand is Saturday at Weber State."
Idaho State made nine three-pointers in the first half and shot 55.2 percent from the field, while NAU was 6-of-25 from the field during the frame. The Lumberjacks hung with the Bengals early, trailing 12-9 at the 13:02 mark. From there, Idaho State exploded on a 13-1 run to pull ahead 25-10 with less than 10 minutes to play. Another 6-0 ISU run down the stretch extended the lead to 33-13 and at the half the Lumberjacks trailed 44-21.
The Bengals continued to roll in the second half, building a 26-point lead of 57-31 near the midway mark and with less than seven minutes to go, they led 69-42. Idaho State stretched the advantage to its largest lead of 75-46, but the Lumberjacks started to find some life on a 6-0 run. Three of the points came from
Xavier Fuller, and the other came from
Jalen Cone on a three-point field goal. Trenton Mclaughlin, who made his first start of his career this evening, made the final jumper of the game with two minutes to play. From there, both teams were held scoreless during the final two minutes and Idaho State went on to win 73-59.
The Lumberjacks were able to improve their shooting percentage from 24 percent in the first half to 56 percent (14-25) in the second.
NAU looks to bounce back on Saturday, Dec. 31, at Weber State. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. Mountain Standard time on ESPN+ in Ogden, Utah. The Wildcats are coming off an 81-72 victory tonight over Northern Colorado.
