FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (December 29, 2025) – The Northern Arizona men's basketball team broke out of their offensive slump in a big way, drilling 17 3-pointers in a 112-60 victory over Benedictine Mesa on Findlay Toyota Court at the Walkup Skydome.
NAU shot 17-of-32 (53.1%) from behind the arc, matching its most 3-pointers in a game since draining 17 triples against Embry-Riddle on Jan. 5, 2022. Meanwhile, the 112 points were the most scored by the Lumberjacks since they put up 115 against Nelson last season on Nov. 8, 2024.
"We took care of business tonight," said head coach
Shane Burcar. "Benedictine Mesa is a really good basketball team. They're ranked No. 22 in the NAIA. We shot the heck out of the basketball tonight. Hopefully we can carry this momentum and our guys have confidence in themselves as we go into conference play."
Leading the charge for the Lumberjacks was
Brennan Peterson, who was perfect Monday night. Peterson shot 8-of-8 from the field, and more impressively was 7-of-7 from behind the arc, in scoring a career-high 23 points in only 22 minutes of action. Peterson is the first Lumberjack to make at least five 3-pointers without a miss since Chris Bowling on Jan. 18, 2018.
Not to be outdone was
Zack Davidson and
Arne Osojnik, who scored 20 and 18 points respectively while both playing less than 20 minutes. Davidson shot 8-of-10 in recording his fourth 20-point game of the season, while Osojnik was 6-of-9 from long range in notching a season-high scoring output.
As a team, NAU shot 58.7% from the floor and assisted on 29 of 37 field goal makes. The Lumberjacks also forced 25 turnovers, with 16 steals, against a Benedictine Mesa team that entered the night unbeaten at 15-0 in NAIA play. Benedictine Mesa's 25 turnovers were the most by an NAU opponent in eight years since CSU Bakersfield also coughed it up 25 times on Dec. 2, 2017.
"This was a big game for us," Burcar said. "We got our butts beat pretty good at Incarnate Word (on Dec. 21) and we were able to come back and have three days of practice for this game. This helped us get the kinks out of the way because we know how good Montana and Montana State are, especially on their home courts."
The Lumberjacks will head into Thursday's conference opener at Montana with a 6-7 record and momentum. All 13 players who saw the court on Monday scored and had either a rebound or an assist. NAU outrebounded Benedictine Mesa, 40-28, and scored 28 points off turnovers and 15 second chance points.
The Redhawks actually held an early 6-5 edge before the Lumberjacks went on a 21-0 run during which six different players scored. Benedictine Mesa went nearly eight minutes without a field goal in the first half as NAU raced out to a 53-27 halftime lead.
Traivar Jackson scored nine of his 11 points in the first half to lead all scorers at the intermission.
NAU had runs of 12-0 and 10-0 in the second half to increase its lead, improving to 6-1 at home this season. Peterson (17), Davidson (12) and Osojnik (12) all scored in double-figures in the second half alone.
Peterson became only the 11th Lumberjack in program history to go at least 8-for-8 from the field in a game.
"I have confidence in myself and the work I put in," Peterson said. "My teammates and coaches believe in me. Tonight means a lot and it builds a lot of confidence for not only myself, but our team, as we go into Montana."
Ryan Abelman led all players with nine rebounds with Jackson close behind with eight. Both players grabbed four offensive boards apiece.
Kavon Bradford paced all players with five assists and nine Lumberjacks in total had multiple assists. Six Lumberjacks had multiple steals with Jackson and
Chris Komin each totaling a team-high three.
NAU heads to Missoula, Mont. for its Big Sky opener on Thursday at 4 p.m. MST. After taking on Montana, the preseason league favorite, the Lumberjacks will then wrap up the first week of conference play at Montana State on Saturday at 6 p.m. MST.
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