FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (November 7, 2025) – The Northern Arizona men's basketball team used a late 19-4 first half run to pull away from Justice University on their way to an 87-55 victory in the Rolle Activity Center Friday night.
Zack Davidson led three Lumberjacks in double-figure scoring with 21 points, surpassing the 20-point mark for the second time in as many games to open his NAU career. As a team, six players scored at least seven points and all 12 players who saw action either scored or grabbed a rebound in NAU's first win of the 2025-26 campaign.
"We stayed calm and ran our sets tonight," said head coach
Shane Burcar. "We want to pound the ball into the post. We respect (Justice's) coaching staff and we knew it was going to be a good game. We played NAU Basketball tonight, stuck to our plan and it worked in front of a great crowd on opening night."
NAU (1-1) shot an efficient 52.2% from the floor for the game, including 57.6% in the first half when it built a 47-23 halftime advantage. Meanwhile, Justice (0-2) shot only 33.9% from the field.
The Lumberjacks dominated the specialty stats, scoring 58 points in the paint, 25 points off 17 Lion turnovers, 16 fast break points and converted 16 offensive rebounds into 22 second chance points.
Four nights after putting up 29 points against Drake, Davidson followed up with a 21-point, eight rebound effort in 27 minutes in his home debut. Davidson shot 10-of-15 from the field.
Arne Osojnik recorded 15 points, six rebounds, two blocks and two steals and
Karl Poom came off the bench to notch his first collegiate double-digit scoring game with 12 points.
Justice missed its first nine shots from the floor before putting it its first field goal eight minutes into the game. By then, NAU had built a 15-3 lead. Despite a slow start, Justice remained within striking distance following a Ray King 3-pointer with seven minutes left in the first half. King, who finished the evening with a game-high 29 points, trimmed NAU's lead to 26-17 before the Lumberjacks' game-changing run.
Osojnik and Davidson combined for 15 of the Lumberjacks' 19 points during a 19-4 run that pushed NAU's lead out to 45-21 with 1:36 left before halftime.
NAU maintained at least a 20-point lead for all but 26 seconds in the second half as the 'Jacks won their eighth consecutive game in the Rolle Activity Center.
While Davidson and Osojnik did the heavy lifting, scoring 27 of NAU's 47 points in the first half, nine different Lumberjacks scored in the second half.
Traivar Jackson narrowly missed a double-double, posting nine points and nine rebounds in only 14 minutes.
Ryan Abelman stuffed the stat sheet, recording seven points to go along with career-highs of eight rebounds, six assists and four steals.
Next, the Lumberjacks will head south to Tucson to face Arizona, currently ranked No. 13 in the AP top 25 but surely to move up significantly No. 3 Florida on Monday. NAU and Arizona will tip off from the McKale Center next Tuesday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. MST.
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