CHENEY, Wash. (February 28, 2026) – The Northern Arizona men's basketball team ran into a buzzsaw on Saturday, as Eastern Washington ran past the Lumberjacks, 88-57, at Reese Court.
The Eagles, winners of eight consecutive games, moved within a game of first-place with one regular season game remaining across the Big Sky Conference on Monday. The Eagles rolled to 13-17 overall and 11-6 in conference play. Meanwhile, NAU dropped to 10-20 overall and 4-13 in conference play.
Eastern Washington hit its first shot from the field – a 3-pointer by Cole Scherer – and the Eagles were off to the races. The Eagles made 10 of their first 11 shots from the field overall.
As well as Eastern Washington shot the ball, NAU did not help its own cause, coughing up the ball seven times in the first 10 minutes. The Lumberjacks' turnovers hampered their ability to get shots up as the Eagles had more field goal makes (10) than the Lumberjacks had field goal attempts (9) midway through the first half.
Despite their slow start, the Lumberjacks only trailed 15-9 following a 3-pointer by
Isaiah Shaw at the 13:29 mark. However, NAU went scoreless during a six-minute drought in which Eastern Washington went on a crushing 19-0 run.
Eastern Washington shot a blistering 75.0% (18-of-24) from the field and 70.0% (7-of-10) behind the arc in building a 45-25 halftime lead. The Eagles finished the afternoon at a 64.3% clip overall and an even 50.0% from 3-point range.
Coming out of the half, NAU forced a quick Eastern Washington timeout with a 5-0 run that trimmed the Eagles' lead to 46-30. After
Diego Campisano hit a triple,
Chris Komin stole the ensuing inbounds pass and found
Ryan Abelman for a cutting layup.
The momentum was short-lived as Eastern Washington dropped the hammer with a 16-2 run to open up a 66-37 advantage with 11:31 to play.
For the game, NAU shot 44.9% and the Lumberjacks were 10-for-23 (43.5%) behind the arc. Their 3-point percentage and makes were their most in six games, but turnovers plagued them all afternoon.
NAU's early turnovers proved to be a game-long issue with the Lumberjacks concluding the game with 17, tying a season-worst. The Lumberjacks entered the day averaging a Big Sky-best 9.1 turnovers per game in league games. Eastern Washington used NAU's miscues to its advantage, outscoring the Lumberjacks by 14 off turnovers.
Shaw was the Lumberjacks' lone scorer in double-figures with 13 points off the bench. Shaw shot 5-of-6 from the field and was perfect on all three of his attempts from long range.
NAU wraps up the regular season Monday night at 6 p.m. MST at home on Findlay Toyota Court at the Walkup Skydome versus Montana State, who is also currently one game out of a possible share of the conference regular season championship.
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