Nau Hits Long Shots, Rips Ewu Defending Big Sky Champions Deal Eagles A Costly Setback

Presented with an early season opportunity to measure itself against the elite of the Big Sky Conference, Eastern Washington’s men’s basketball team shrank dramatically from the challenge.

The Eagles, off to their best start in 11 seasons, seemed to check out mentally in the second half of Saturday night’s Big Sky opener against defending champion Northern Arizona and ended up on the wrong side of an 83-48 thrashing witnessed by 793 fans at Reese Court.

NAU (7-4) connected on 14 of 24 3-point shots and outscored Eastern (6-5) by 30 points in the second half, leaving coach Ben Howland sporting one huge smile.

“That’s the best game we’ve played this year,” he said after watching his hot-shooting Lumberjacks come within one of matching the Big Sky’s single-game record for 3-pointers. “We recruit good shooters, and the 3-point shot in the second half really got us going.

“We got some open looks and we knocked them down. And once we got it going, it was like nobody could miss. It was infectious.”

Eastern, hampered since the third game of the season by the loss of senior forward Mike Berger to a broken foot, lost another big man early in the game when sophomore center Jason Humbert broke his left thumb going for a rebound. The 6-foot-10 sophomore tried to play on, but an official stopped the game and ordered him to the bench after noticing the swelling and ugly angle of the injured thumb.

“The loss of Jason was a factor,” admitted EWU coach Steve Aggers. “It really hurt our rotation and we had to play a lot of guys out of position. But that all sounds like excuses.

“The fact is, they executed like defending champions. They set great screens and got the ball to their shooters. They killed us from the perimeter.”

Still, the Eagles were leading 26-25 with less than a minute left in a tightly contested first half. But NAU scored the last six points of the period when Andrew Mavis canned a pair of 3-pointers to give the ‘Jacks a 31-26 lead at intermission.

Mavis, who finished with 17 points, then came out and drilled another 3 to open the second half.

That shot ignited a 23-4 NAU run that included 15 unanswered points and 6-of-8 shooting from 3-point range.

The Lumberjacks, who led the nation in 3-point shooting percentage last season, made 11 of their first 13 3-point tries in the second half.

“I guess it carried over,” Mavis said of his hot shooting late in the first half. “We were feeling hot and got a second wind going. It’s a good shot for us, because we’ve got five, six guys that can shoot the 3.

“But tonight … man, that’s not going to happen very often. You can’t expect to shoot like that every night, but we’re thankful we did tonight.”

Ross Land, who made 5 of 6 3-point tries, led NAU’s balanced scoring with 18 points. Backup center Dan McClintock matched Mavis with 17 and reserve guard Michael McNair added 16.

Michael Lewis led Eastern with 13 points. Karim Scott and Mike Sims each added 10. Scott, who came in averaging 19.6 points per game, did not score in the second half as the game slipped away and the Eagles’ intensity waned.

“I thought we defended well in the first half, but you’ve got to play 40 minutes, not 20,” said Aggers, who lectured his team behind closed doors for nearly 20 minutes following the game. “We don’t seem to have the competitive edge we had right before Christmas, and we need to get that back.

“We’re frustrated right now, but we’re not going to panic. There’s 15 league games left, and we need to start getting ready for Northridge.”

The Matadors (4-7, 0-1) invade Reese Court at 7:05 Monday night.

N. Arizona 83, E. Washington 48

N. Arizona (7-4, 1-0) - Mavis 7-10 0-0 17, Hix 0-2 2-5 2, Frank 0-2 0-0 0, Akina 1-2 0-0 3, Land 5-6 3-4 18, McGrath 0-3 0-0 0, McNair 6-10 1-2 16, Abbott 0-0 0-0 0, Hutchings 2-6 0-0 6, Wolthers 1-2 2-2 4, Polyblank 0-0 0-0 0, McClintock 7-13 3-7 17. Totals 29-56 11-20 83.

E. Washington (6-5 0-1) - Sims 5-9 0-2 10, Scott 4-11 1-2 10, Humbert 0-0 0-0 0, Williams 2-8 2-2 7, Taylor 0-8 0-0 0, Stone 1-1 0-0 2, McGee 1-4 0-0 2, Claus 0-0 0-0 0, M. Lewis 6-8 0-0 13, K. Lewis 1-6 2-3 4, White 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 20-57 5-9 48.

Halftime-Northern Arizona 31, Eastern Washington 26. 3-Point goals-Northern Arizona 14-24 (Mavis 3-4, Akina 1-1, Land 5-6, McGrath 3-6, Hutchings 2-6). Eastern Washington 3-15 (Scott 1-3, Williams 1-3, Taylor 0-5, McGee 0-2, M. Lewis 1-2). Fouled out-Northern Arizona, Frank. Rebounds-Northern Arizona 38 (Hix 7), Eastern Washington 34 (K. Lewis 6). Assists-Northern Arizona 16 (Akina, Hutchings 4), Eastern Washington 15 (Williams 5). Total fouls-Northern Arizona 14, Eastern Washington 19. A-793.

, DataTimes