Shorthanded ‘Jacks Nearly Pull Off Tourney Upset, Falls 78-75 to Eastern Washington

BOISE, Idaho (March 9, 2022) – Down their second and third-leading scorers for the final five minutes, the Northern Arizona men's basketball team battled until the last horn in a 78-75 loss to Eastern Washington in the first round of the conference tournament. The Lumberjacks' season comes to a close with a 9-23 record.
 
"To have a 69-60 lead with 5:38 left, this one is going to be hard to take in the offseason," said head coach Shane Burcar. "It's a tough locker room right now. Give credit to Eastern Washington. They kept going with the matchups and they hit some big shots. Long story short it's going to be a long offseason thinking about this game, but you have to turn it into a positive. I know one thing, anyone who watched this game knows how hard our young men competed and my heart aches for them.
 
NAU trailed by as much as 11 and ultimately led for more than 16 and a half minutes in the second half. However, already down redshirt junior Nik Mains after he fouled out with eight minutes left, the Lumberjacks lost redshirt sophomore Keith Haymon following his fifth foul with 5:16 remaining and a 69-60 lead.
 
The shorthanded Lumberjacks kept grinding though and kept the advantage even as the Eagles chipped away. NAU led until Eastern Washington's Steele Venters converted an and-1 to move the Eagles ahead, 72-71, with exactly two minutes on the clock. NAU never led again although as the sixth-seeded Eagles held off the Lumberjacks' upset bid.
 
The 11th-seeded Lumberjacks made sure the crowd in Idaho Central Arena knew they came ready to play as they jumped on the Eagles early. NAU went into the first media timeout ahead 7-0, while forcing Eastern Washington into four shots from the floor and four turnovers to start the game.
 
The early NAU momentum was halted though as Eastern Washington recovered from its slow start and answered with four consecutive threes to push the Eagles in front, 12-9, with 13 minutes left in the first half. NAU remained close and trailed 23-21 with five minutes on the clock on a Mains floater in the paint, but Eastern Washington took the first double-digit lead of the game with an 11-2 run.
 
Eastern Washington appeared poised to take nine-point halftime lead before sophomore Jalen Cone drove the length of the floor and banked in a buzzer-beating three to send NAU into the locker room with momentum despite trailing 37-31.
 
That momentum carried right into the second half with the 'Jacks exploding for the first 10 points in the initial 97 seconds. Redshirt junior Jay Green ignited the 10-0 run with a driving layup and redshirt freshman Carson Towt followed with a bucket. Mains then put the Lumberjacks in front, 38-37, with a triple in transition, before Towt capped the run – and forced an Eagle timeout with an and-1.
 
The Lumberjacks maintained the advantage until Eastern Washington tied it up at 54-54 with eight minutes to play. However, junior Mason Stark and Cone connected on consecutive treys to snap the tie to put NAU back atop, 60-54. After Eastern Washington went on a mini 5-0 run, the Lumberjacks put their foot on the pedal with a 9-1 run to extend their advantage out to 69-60 with 5:38 left.
 
Nearly pulling off the upset, and picking up the program's first win over Eastern Washington in five season, NAU received big-time contributions from a number of players starting with Towt, who scored a career-high 21 points to lead all players. Towt also secured a game-high 16 rebounds – spearheading a 37-32 advantage on the glass – in his finest game of his career.
 
Towt concluded the season with 280 rebounds, the sixth-highest single-season total in program history and the second-most by a Lumberjack in more than four decades.
 
Backing Towt's first career 20-point game was Cone, who scored 19 and crossed the 600-point plateau on the season. Off the bench, Stark scored 12 points all on a career-high four threes, and Green rounded out NAU's double-digit scorers with 10 points in his final game as a Lumberjack.
 
NAU shot 43.3 percent for the game compared to Eastern Washington's 46.3 percent clip. While the shooting percentages were close and NAU actually made one more three than Eastern Washington (8-7), a decisive stat was Eastern Washington's 21-for-25 performance at the line. In comparison, NAU shot 9-for-14 at the charity stripe.
 
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