MISSOULA, Mont. – Montana came from behind to beat Northern Arizona 63-50 on Saturday night and clinch the outright Big Sky regular-season championship along with the right to host the league tournament next week in Missoula.
Despite the loss, the Lumberjacks (8-12) finished in a three-way tie with Southern Utah and Sacramento State and will be the No. 7 seed for the tournament by virtue of their season sweep of Sacramento State and Eastern Washington’s loss to Weber State on Saturday night, which eliminated the Eagles.
NAU will face second-seeded Weber State in the opening game of the Big Sky tournament, with tip-off scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday afternoon.
"It means everything,” said first-year NAU coach Jack Murphy. “We are very happy, excited and proud that we accomplished our No. 1 goal, which was making the conference tournament. Now the job is to keep playing.”
No. 6 seed Southern Utah will play No. 3 seed North Dakota in the second game on Thursday, while fifth-seeded Montana State will play third-seeded Northern Colorado. The semifinals and finals will be contested Friday and Saturday.
NAU appeared to be in position to ruin the Senior Night festivities for Montana in the first half, leading by as many as 11 points. The Lumberjacks led 32-24 at the half behind a strong opening 20 minutes by Max Jacobsen, who scored a team-best 14 points. NAU shot 50 percent from the field and had only three turnovers in the first half.
"We played one of our better halves of basketball of the season in the first half,” said Murphy. “But we could not sustain it in the second half. Based on the feel of the game, our defense did a pretty good job. We rebounded the ball well and we were able to get the ball out in transition.”
Freshman guard DeWayne Russell had seven points and Gaellan Bewernick contributed six points in the first half.
Montana closed the gap early in the second half with an 11-4 run out of the locker room. The teams remained close for most of the half before the Grizzlies pulled away late.
"In the second half, they are the conference champions and they made a run,” said Murphy. “They are supposed to make a run, and we battled back with them. It was still a tight game with five or six minutes to go. I am proud of how our guys fought. It helped prepare us for next week.”
The Grizzlies held the Lumberjacks to only 18 points and 29 percent for shooting from the field in the second half. Jacobsen only had three points in the second half, finishing the game with a team-best 17 points.
Senior guard Gabe Rogers extended his streak of double-digit scoring games to 16, putting up 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field. He finished as the regular-season scoring champion in the Big Sky Conference.
"We want to play longer than just Thursday,” said Murphy. “We want to look forward and keep playing. We enjoy each other’s company and want to extend it as long as we can."
