Former Gonzaga Prep standout Liam Lloyd carving out role in first season with Northern Arizona
When the ball passed through the rim Saturday, it looked like Liam Lloyd had made the shot of the season for the Northern Arizona men’s basketball team.
Down two points following a missed free throw, Jalen Cone got the ball up to Lloyd, who stood just outside the 3-point line. He pumped, then put up a shot from the wing. Swoosh. Buzzer. Lumberjacks swarmed Lloyd. Game over.
Not quite.
“I thought the game was done,” Lloyd said. “But of course, there were 0.4 seconds left.”
After referees put time back on the clock and got everyone reset, what followed was the most remarkable play of the Big Sky season – a full-court heave from Hunter Woods to Isaiah Johnson, who then made what was essentially a 12-foot fadeaway tip-in off the backboard to give Portland State an 88-87 victory in Flagstaff, Arizona.
“I’ve been beat on buzzer-beaters but not quite like that,” said Matty McIntyre, Lloyd’s basketball coach when he played at Gonzaga Prep.
“Power to him who made it,” Lloyd said.
It’s been that kind of season for the Lumberjacks. Heading into Thursday night’s game at Eastern Washington (19-7, 13-0), which is riding a Division-I best 15-game winning streak, NAU is 7-20 overall and last in the Big Sky standings at 3-11. Their previous eight losses have come by a combined 19 points.
But it has still been a notable year for the sophomore Lloyd, the G-Prep graduate who transferred from Grand Canyon University to Northern Arizona before this season.
“I think this is a conference that fits my playing style really well,” Lloyd said Wednesday, shortly after he and his teammates arrived in Spokane. “I think I can have a good career here in the Big Sky.”
During his career at G-Prep, Lloyd scored more than 1,000 points and won a pair of state championships. He chose GCU out of high school – one season before Tommy Lloyd, his father and former Gonzaga assistant coach, accepted the head coaching position at Arizona – and spent his first two college seasons there, including the COVID year of 2020-21.
But he only played in 30 games overall and in his second year there scored just 12 points. He entered the transfer portal after the 2021-22 season and landed at NAU under head coach Shane Burcar.
“It was a great fit,” Lloyd said. “Coach Burcar and his staff, they believed in me from the jump.”
A starter in 19 games this season, Lloyd is NAU’s fifth-leading scorer at 6.0 points per game and has the team’s second-most assists (66) and steals (22).
He has scored at least 10 points in 10 games, and against Portland State on Saturday he had a season-high nine assists to go with 11 points.
“He’s always been a tremendous jump shooter, and he’s always had a really sincere competitive fire,” McIntyre said. “He played defense like his hair was on fire, and obviously he was a great high school player. Now he’s going against great players from all over, and there’s an adjustment period with that. He’s learning and finding his groove.”
When he plays Thursday night against the Eagles, it will be the first time Lloyd has been at Reese Court since he attended EWU’s basketball camps as a recruit, he said. He expects to have some friends in attendance. McIntyre said he hoped to attend .
“I’m just so proud of him,” McIntyre said. “He’s an easy guy to root for.”
The Eagles, who had one of their worst shooting games of the conference season at NAU on Jan. 21, are not overlooking the Lumberjacks.
“We snuck out of there with a win that we found a way to (get) late in the game,” EWU head coach David Riley said of the team’s 79-76 victory, a game in which the Eagles trailed by five with less than 3 minutes to go.
“They’re playing very good basketball, and their record is not showing it,” Riley said.
The Lumberjacks, 2½ games behind sixth-place Sacramento State with four games to go, are likely destined to play on the first day of the Big Sky Tournament. That means they would need to win four games in five days to claim an unlikely conference title.
But to Lloyd, there is hope.
“We’ve just got to get hot at the right time,” he said. “We can compete with anybody in the conference, and I think everybody knows that.”
Beer now available at EWU basketball games
Starting Thursday, beer will be available for purchase at Reese Court during Eastern Washington men’s and women’s basketball games.
“In an effort to provide an exceptional gameday experience for Eagle fans, the introduction of this amenity will not only enhance game experience but create new revenue opportunities for Eagle Athletics,” EWU athletics director Lynn Hickey said in a press release this week.
“This will provide an opportunity to explore similar amenities in future competitions throughout our facilities while strategically expanding revenue generation across various seasons,” Hickey said. “These new revenues will aid us in our mission to serve student-athletes during their time here in Cheney while continuing to increase the Eagle fan experience.”
Sales will begin one hour before tipoff and will end at the 10-minute mark of the second half. The athletics program also plans to launch a “Drink Responsibly” campaign on game days, according to a news release.
Beer and wine have previously been available in premium seating areas and designated beer gardens.