FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (February 15, 2022) – The Northern Arizona men's basketball team completes a four-game road trip on Thursday at 8 p.m. MST versus Portland State on ESPN+ and the Northern Arizona Healthcare NAU Lumberjack Radio Network. Thursday's contest will be the Lumberjacks' lone game of the week, concluding a stretch of five road games in their last six and four consecutive over the last week and a half.
NAU (9-16, 5-9 Big Sky) trails Portland State by a half game in the conference standings for seventh, and will look to even the season series after the Vikings defeated the Lumberjacks, 97-76, on Jan. 29 in the Walkup Skydome. In the teams' first meeting, NAU turned the ball over 19 times, which led to 29 Portland State points.
"The biggest thing we learned from watching the game was everyone needs to do their job," said head coach
Shane Burcar. "We had 19 turnovers against them and we were chasing right from the get-go at the first media timeout. We have to put ourselves in a better position to have success and that starts with taking care of the ball. Portland State plays a different style than everybody else in the league and that works to their benefit."
After a 22-point loss at Northern Colorado to begin the week last week, NAU rebounded to hand Montana its first home loss of the season on Thursday, 72-67, in overtime. The Lumberjacks nearly completed the sweep through the Treasure State on Saturday, but fell to a game-winner in the final seven seconds in a 72-70 loss to first-place Montana State.
Nearly pulling off the perfect weekend versus Montana and Montana State, the Lumberjacks had several areas that could lead to even more success with just three weeks remaining before the conference tournament. As a team, NAU outrebounded Montana and Montana State by an average margin of 6.5 and the 'Jacks shot 75.6 percent from the free throw line - a significant improvement of their season clip of 67 percent.
Redshirt junior
Nik Mains averaged 15.5 points per game in the final two games last week, leading four Lumberjacks in double-figures versus the Grizzlies and the Bobcats. Sophomore
Jalen Cone averaged 14.0 points, while redshirt
Carson Towt and redshirt sophomore
Keith Haymon both averaged 12.5 points. Mains and Haymon were exceptional from behind the arc, shooting 46.7 percent and 46.2 percent respectively against Montana and Montana State. Towt and Cone combined for 22 assists in the two games to add to their scoring totals.
"We are a talented team and we're a young team," Burcar said. "With that being said, you can get hot at the right time and improve your seed at the Big Sky tournament over the next six games."
That sets the stage for Thursday's matchup in the Viking Pavilion, a place that NAU has yet to win in since the arena's opening prior to the 2018-19 season. In fact, NAU has not won in Portland since Jan. 3, 2015, although the Lumberjacks, due to the scheduling oddities over recent years, have only played the Vikings on their home floor four times in the last six seasons.
Portland State entered last week on a four-game losing streak before falling to Montana State, 77-74, and Montana, 85-76, on its road trip by a combined 12 points. The Vikings are a half-game ahead of the Lumberjacks in the Big Sky standings at 6-9 in league play and 8-15 overall. Although Viking opponents are averaging 72.7 points per game against them this season, and 75.5 points per game in conference games, Portland State wrecks havoc defensively, ranking in the top 30 in the country in steals per game (9.3), steals (214), turnovers forced (16.6) and turnover margin (+3.7).
Khalid Thomas leads the team in scoring with 10.9 points per game, including 12.0 points per game in conference play. Thomas also paces the Vikings with 6.0 rebounds per game, 14 blocks and 42 steals, the latter of which ranks third in the Big Sky. Ezekiel Alley has actually been Portland State's leading scorer in conference play, averaging 13.3 points per game on 49 percent shooting from the field. For the season, Alley is averaging 10.6 points per game and has made a team-high 25 threes.
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