FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (December 7, 2025) – For the first time in three years, the Northern Arizona men's basketball team will face Arizona State on the hardwood when the two in-state teams meet on Tuesday in Desert Financial Arena at 7 p.m. MST.
Streamed live on
ESPN+, the game can be heard on the Northern Arizona Healthcare NAU Lumberjack Radio Network. The pregame show with
Mitch Strohman begins at 6:30 p.m. MST.
The Lumberjacks saw their record drop to 4-4 with a narrow 69-68 road loss to North Dakota State on Saturday in their final game of the Big Sky-Summit Challenge. NAU is 4-0 at home this season and 0-3 away from Flagstaff. The Lumberjacks are in the midst of three consecutive road games with Tuesday's game in Tempe being the second in the stretch.
NAU battled on its trip to Fargo against a North Dakota State team that had defeated preseason Big Sky favorite Montana earlier last week. The Lumberjacks nearly overcame a 10-point second half deficit and had an opportunity to win at the buzzer, but were denied of a game-winning shot.
The 'Jacks rallied in the second half behind the play of
Zack Davidson, who scored 18 of his 20 points after halftime. His 20-point outing, on 7-of-12 shooting, was his third of the season as the first-year Lumberjack moved up to fifth in the Big Sky in scoring at 16.4 points per game. He also converted on a season-best 6-for-6 at the free throw line.
Arne Osojnik netted his fifth double-digit scoring game with 11 points versus the Bison. His five double-digit games are only behind Davidson's six on the team. Over two games during the Big Sky-Summit Challenge last week, Osojnik averaged 13.5 points on 55.0% shooting (11-for-20). He is averaging 10.3 points per game on the season, third behind Davidson and
Ryan Abelman (12.1).
After averaging 10.5 turnovers per game over their first six games, the Lumberjacks turned it over 13 times each in their two losses to South Dakota State and North Dakota State. The turnovers, coupled with allowing 29 combined offensive rebounds limited NAU in its pair of games last week.
Still, the Lumberjacks head south the I-17 with an opportunity to pick up a big victory with only four games remaining before conference play against the Sun Devils, who they have had recent success against.
Although the Sun Devils may hold the all-time series lead, 38-20, the Lumberjacks have split the last six meetings, albeit dating back to 1998, with Arizona State. Arizona State has won the last two meetings in 2017 and 2022, but NAU claimed victories in 2006 and 2011 most recently. The 69-68 win in 2011 was memorable in particular with Stallon Saldivar's game-winning 3-pointer with 0.6 seconds left
.
On Tuesday, NAU faces an Arizona State team that continued their blistering start to the season on Saturday, improving to 7-2 with an 86-70 victory over Oklahoma in the Jerry Colangelo Classic on a neutral court in downtown Phoenix. The victory followed a run to the Maui Invitational championship in which the Sun Devils defeated Texas and Washington State before a loss to USC in the title game.
Averaging 81.4 points per game, Arizona State is an efficient 3-point shooting team, ranking 26th in the country at 39.0%, and is top 40 in both free throws made per game (19.2) and attempted (26.7).
Maurice Odom, a Pepperdine transfer, drives the Sun Devils. Odom leads the team with 18.9 points on 44.8% shooting from 3-point range and 6.0 assists per game. Odom ranks 25th in the country in assists per game, 57th in scoring, 41st in 3-point percentage and 25th in 3-pointers made per game (3.3). Off the bench, Anthony Johnson is the second-leading scorer at 13.8 points per game. Johnson is shooting 53.6% from the floor.
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