FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (February 4, 2022) – The Northern Arizona men's basketball team makes a pit stop back in Flagstaff before returning to the road next week with a Saturday afternoon matinee in the Walkup Skydome at 2 p.m. versus Northern Colorado. The two teams will then turn around and face each other again on the back half of a back-to-back on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley, Colo. Both games will be streamed on ESPN+ with the radio broadcasts on the Northern Arizona Healthcare NAU Lumberjack Radio Network.
NAU's one-game trip in the Skydome precedes a stretch of four straight on the road, including three games next week starting in Greeley and taking the Lumberjacks to Montana next Thursday and Montana State next Saturday.
Coming off a come-from-behind 62-61 victory on the road at Sacramento State on Thursday, the 'Jacks (8-13, 4-6 Big Sky) look to knock off the Bears for the fourth time in the last five head-to-head meetings. The next two games will match up the top two three-point shooting teams in the league in terms of three-point percentage and three-point makes per game. Northern Colorado leads the conference in three-point percentage at .378 just percentage points ahead of NAU. The Bears' 10.7 threes per game ranks ahead of NAU's average of 9.0.
"Northern Colorado is a great three-point shooting team and we'll have to figure out a way to defend them," said head coach
Shane Burcar. "At the same time, they'll have to figure out a way to defend us. They're going to be fired up coming off a loss, but we'll be ready for them."
The Lumberjacks connected on 11 threes in their road win over the Hornets, marking the seventh time in the last nine games that NAU hit double-digit treys. During this stretch, NAU is shooting 40.8 percent from behind the arc and averaging 10.9 threes per game. Since the turn of calendar year, spanning the aforementioned nine-game stretch, redshirt junior
Nik Mains has hit 30 threes at a 48.4 percent clip from behind the arc. Sophomore
Jalen Cone is shooting 43.8 percent with 35 makes and redshirt sophomore
Keith Haymon is at 40 percent with 20 makes.
Mains led four Lumberjacks in double-figure scoring in Thursday's win in Sacramento with 11 of his 16 points coming in the second half to help NAU rally back from an eight-point deficit with under 13 minutes to play. Haymon, like Mains, hit four threes and finished with 12 points, while Cone and redshirt freshman
Carson Towt both scoring 10. Freshman
Jayden Jackson, in his second career start, had his best scoring output of his debut season with eight points.
Cone is averaging a team-leading 19.3 points per game, good for second in the conference only behind Northern Colorado's Daylen Kountz (20.6). In his last 13 games, Cone is averaging 22.2 points with eight 20-point efforts. Despite being held to just 10 points, his lowest total since early December, Cone still dished out a team-high six assists, which marked his second-best total of the season.
Cone continues to lead the conference in three-pointers per game (3.24) and three-pointers made (68), while shooting at a 41.2 percent clip. Mains (2.4) and Haymon (2.2) are also ranked in the top 10 in three-pointers per game while shooting 42.5 percent and 36.9 percent respectively from behind the arc.
Along with his 10 points, Towt recorded nine rebounds and four assists on Thursday, which is right in line with his team-leading averages of 9.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. Towt ranks second in the Big Sky in rebounding, seventh in assists and owns the second-best assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.9.
After opening conference play with a 5-1 record, Northern Colorado (10-11, 5-4 Big Sky) has dropped three straight games, including two to Portland State this week. The Bears fell to the Vikings, 79-76, in Portland on Monday and 106-99 at home on Thursday. Northern Colorado's average of 10.7 threes made per game is sixth in the country. The Bears, who average 77.6 points per game, are 12th in three-pointers made (224), 25th in three-point percentage (.378) and 26th in three-point attempts (592).
Kountz ranks 16th in the country with a Big Sky leading 20.6 points per game. Kountz, who is averaging 22.9 points per game in conference play, is shooting 51.6 percent from the field. Dru Kuxhausen leads the Bears' three-point attack at a 44.7 percent clip, which ranks 14th nationally. He ranks 22nd with 67 three-pointers made and is averaging 11.5 points per game in his first season at Northern Colorado.
Last season, the Lumberjacks defeated the Bears in their only meeting, 68-64, in the Rolle Activity Center. Although Northern Colorado leads the all-time series, 20-14, NAU has won three of the last four meetings including a pair of wins on the road.
The first 500 fans to Saturday's game in the Skydome will receive a free NAU yo-yo.
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