FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (February 19, 2022) – With just five games remaining before the conference tournament, the penultimate week of the regular season for the Northern Arizona men's basketball team gets underway Monday night in the Walkup Skydome versus Southern Utah at 6 p.m. Monday's game, which begins NAU's final homestand of the season, will be streamed on ESPN+ with the radio broadcast on the Northern Arizona Healthcare NAU Lumberjack Radio Network.
The final homestand consists of three games starting with Monday night's contest and will continue Thursday night at 6 p.m. versus Idaho State and conclude with Senior Day on Saturday at 2 p.m. versus Weber State.
Jay Green and
Nik Mains will be honored prior to Saturday's home finale in the Dome.
Following a wild Thursday night of results that saw three teams outside of the top five knock off teams in the top five, the Big Sky standings are really tightening up at the top and the bottom. NAU, which enters Monday's game with a 5-10 conference record, is a win ahead of Idaho and Idaho State for eighth-place although both the Vandals and Bengals have opportunities to pick up victories on Saturday while NAU is idle.
The Lumberjacks (9-17 overall) head home following yet another close loss earlier this week on Thursday, 68-67 to Portland State. It was NAU's second consecutive loss by two points or fewer and its third loss in the last two weeks by three points or less. In fact all three of those losses have come since NAU's last meeting against Southern Utah on Jan. 31 during a stretch that NAU has gone 2-4. In these last six games, five have been decided by five points or fewer.
Sophomore
Jalen Cone broke out of a shooting slump with a 5-of-10 performance behind the arc versus the Vikings on Thursday, adding up to a 19-point effort. His five threes, which marked his eighth game this season with at least five triples, upped his season total to 83 – tied for seventh-most in a season. The 83 three-pointers are the most by a Lumberjack in a season since Aaseem Dixon's 88 in 2014-15, which is Cone's next target as he climbs up NAU's single season three-point list.
Cone, second in the league in scoring at 19.0 points per game, also tied Ruben Boykin, Jr. for 10th-most points scored in a season on Thursday as he sits at 493. Should he just hit his season average, Cone would leap Ryan McDade (503) and Kris Yanku (510) for eighth-most points on the single-season chart on Monday alone and could pass Ross Land (516) for seventh with 24 points.
While Cone is among the country's top scorers – currently 25th in points scored and 44th in points per game – he is also teaming up with redshirt freshman
Carson Towt to do something that a pair of Lumberjacks have not done in nearly a decade. With Cone and Towt at 98 and 96 assists respectively, they both could reach triple-digits versus Southern Utah. When they do so, they would be the first pair of NAU teammates to each register at least 100 assists since Stallon Saldivar (132) and DeWayne Russell (102) during the 2012-13 season.
Towt also is inching closer to breaking into NAU's single-season top 10 for rebounds after notching his eighth double-digit rebounding game of the season on Thursday. Towt, who ranks 33rd in the country with 8.8 rebounds per game, is at 230 for the season and needs 35 boards more to crack the top 10. Six of Towt's 10 rebounds the other night came on the offensive end, which matched a career-high set last month versus Sacramento State.
Along with Cone, redshirt sophomore
Keith Haymon (13), Green (11) and Mains (10) all reached double-figures in scoring versus the Vikings as NAU had four double-digit scorers for the third time in the last six games. For Haymon, he continues to roll with his fifth double-digit scoring game in his last seven – a span in which he is averaging 12.0 points per game and shooting 46.9 percent from three-point range since the Lumberjacks' last meeting with Southern Utah.
Monday will be the final time that NAU and Southern Utah will meet in the regular season as Big Sky Conference opponents prior to the Thunderbirds' move to the WAC in the summer. Southern Utah has won 11 of 19 matchups since it joined the Big Sky nine years ago, including a 78-66 win in Cedar City on Jan. 31, although NAU owns the all-time series lead, 21-19.
Pending other results throughout the conference on Saturday, Southern Utah could in sole possession of third or tied for third in the conference heading into Monday's game following a 76-71 loss to Montana State. The Thunderbirds, who have dropped two of their last three games after winning four straight, are 16-9 overall and 10-5 in the Big Sky. Southern Utah is averaging 79.7 points per game and allowing 73.9 while shooting 46 percent from the field and outrebounding its opponents by an average margin of 4.4.
Tevian Jones leads the Thunderbirds in scoring at 15.7 points per game in addition to averaging 4.8 rebounds per game. He tallied a double-double in the first meeting against NAU with 15 points and 10 rebounds. John Knight III led Southern Utah with 17 points in the first matchup between the two teams and is second on the team with 14.0 points per game. He is also one of the top players in the league in assists with 107.
The first 150 students to the game on Monday will receive a free yellow NAU fanny pack. NAU Athletics is also offering a special ticket deal for not only Monday's game, but also Thursday's game versus Idaho State, with all fans eligible for a $6 ticket. Tickets can be purchased at this
link.
To stay up to date with the NAU men's basketball team, follow the Lumberjacks on
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