POCATELLO, Idaho (February 5, 2026) – The Northern Arizona men's basketball team rode an effective offensive performance to notch their first road win of the season, shooting their way past Idaho State, 79-73, in Reed Gym Thursday night.
NAU (9-15) picked up its third win in its last four games, improving to 3-8 in conference play. The victory is also the Lumberjacks' sixth in its last seven visits to Pocatello.
"We were resilient the entire night," said head coach
Shane Burcar. "We know how good Idaho State is. They made some big shots, but we also made some big shots down the stretch. Give credit to our guys, that's three out of four for us."
Ryan Abelman paced the Lumberjacks with 21 points as NAU has won all five of Abelman's 20-point outings this season. Abelman shot 6-for-9 from the field, including 5-for-6 from long range and 4-for-4 at the line, while adding a team-high seven rebounds.
Abelman drilled a set of critical triples in the second half as Idaho State (10-14, 3-8 Big Sky) was charging back from a 12-point deficit.
After
Isaiah Shaw threw down a thunderous dunk in transition to give NAU its largest lead of the game, 60-48, with 10:32 remaining, Idaho State ripped off an 8-0 run to close within four. Abelman halted the run with a trey and later knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to turn a 67-62 NAU lead into a double-digit advantage with 3:35 to play.
"We were up nine and we had three consecutive possessions where we had wide open 3-pointers and we missed them," Burcar said. "We said, keep shooting it. We did an outstanding job sharing the ball and a great indicator of that is to only have 20 3-pointers and you make 10 of them."
NAU finished the night shooting 50.0% and making 10 3-pointers. Aiding Abelman's hot-shooting was
Diego Campisano, who made 3-of-4 from behind the arc.
Karl Poom (15) and Campisano (12) combined for 27 of NAU's 31 bench points as the Lumberjacks' reserves outscored the Bengals, 31-22. Idaho State leads the league, and ranks in the top 50 nationally, with 29.4 bench points per game.
Despite shooting 70.8% (17-of-24) in the first half, the Lumberjacks were locked in a back-and-forth affair. Neither team led by more than a possession through the first 19 minutes as the first half featured six ties and 12 lead changes.
Poom tied the game at 30-30 with three minutes left in the opening half, starting a 13-4 run to end the period. Campisano knocked down his first of three 3-pointers on the following possession to put the 'Jacks in front and later added another triple for the first multi-possession lead of the game, 38-34, with less than a minute to half.
Making its final nine field goals, NAU claimed a 40-34 halftime lead and maintained that advantage through the entire second half. Abelman scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half to help keep the Bengals at bay.
The Lumberjacks shot 59.2% for the night, while the Bengals shot 54.0%. For the second time in the last three games, NAU committed only five turnovers.
Brennan Peterson recorded seven assists as NAU had 15 helpers in the game.
NAU looks to complete the week's sweep on the road with a 7 p.m. MST tilt Saturday night at Weber State.
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