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BOISE, Idaho -- The No. 7-seeded Northern Arizona men’s basketball team ended its stay in the Big Sky Conference tournament on Sunday in the second round after the University of Montana rattled off a 12-0 run and closed out a 74-65 victory.

Senior guard Trent McLaughlin poured in 34 points for the Lumberjacks, but that was not enough to hang with the No. 2-seeded Grizzlies.

For just the third time this season, the Lumberjacks lost a game after leading at the half. Head coach Shane Burcar was visibly distraught while reflecting on the loss, and he said he regretted that he could not get the job done for his guys.

Northern Arizona shot just 24 of 62 from the field, including a 7-for-25 performance from beyond the arc, compared to the Grizzlies� 24 of 44 from the field and 3 of 10 from 3-point land.

The largest discrepancy between the two teams, though, was the free-throw margin. Montana shot 23 for 34 from the charity stripe while the Lumberjacks shot just 10 for 18. The Montana duo of redshirt freshman guard Money Williams and senior guard Brandon Whitney shot a combined 13 for 15 from the foul line.

Redshirt junior forward Carson Towt made Northern Arizona’s first two baskets before Montana keyed on him and forced the ball to go elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies offense, led by Williams, got out to an early 13-8 lead before Northern Arizona found some rhythm and went on a 10-0 run.

This stretch of scoring, mostly fueled by McLaughlin, put the Lumberjacks in control for the rest of the first half. McLaughlin hit one final shot before the buzzer sounded to give his team a one-point advantage at the break.

The second half presented a starkly different story for the Lumberjacks offense. Grizzlies head coach and conference coach of the year Travis DeCuire had his team continue to focus on stopping the auxiliary Northern Arizona pieces and let McLaughlin score.

“Our No. 1 key was to minimize the other guys,� DeCuire said. “The key for us was to minimize the number of 3s he took uncontested and limit the other three perimeter players. When we did that, they could not generate enough offense to keep up with us.�

This strategy worked, and Northern Arizona was unable to string multiple possessions without a Montana basket in between. Whitney and Williams captained the aforementioned 12-0 run, and Northern Arizona never recovered.

All five of Northern Arizona’s starters played at least 31 minutes in the contest, and because of this, the Lumberjacks only had five points scored by bench players compared to Montana’s 21. The lack of production outside of the starting lineup was apparent later in the game, when four of the five starters were either in foul trouble or had fouled out.

With the loss, Northern Arizona finished its season with an 18-15 record, and McLaughlin and senior guard Jayden Jackson finished their careers as Lumberjacks.

McLaughlin said he was especially grateful to have been a Lumberjack and expressed just how much the City of Flagstaff has meant to him.

“Playing with these guys and Coach Burcar have been the greatest years of my life,� McLaughlin said. “It's been everything for my family; they’ve been able to watch all of our games, and it's close to home.�

Even though Northern Arizona fizzled out in the second round, Burcar said his squad was invited to play in two postseason tournaments following the conclusion of the Big Sky tourney.

Northern Arizona 66, Eastern Washington 53 

The NAU men picked up a first-round victory over the Eastern Washington Eagles on Saturday in the Big Sky tournament.

The Lumberjacks trailed to start the night as Eastern Washington made back-to-back triples to start the game. Carson Towt put NAU on the board with 18:14 on the clock, putting a stop to the Eagles' run. A Trent McLaughlin triple brought the Jacks back within one, trailing 8-7 with 14:33 to play, followed by a Jayden Jackson triple to give Northern Arizona their first lead at 10-8.

Trailing 19-16 at the under-eight media timeout, the Jacks looked to build off the 7-of-18 start from the field while EWU started 7 for 15. The Jacks regained the lead from a mid-range jumper from McLaughlin, giving NAU a 20-19 lead with six minutes to play in the half, just before he sunk his first triple of the game and forced EWU into a timeout with 5:19 to play.

Northern Arizona carried a 34-30 lead into halftime, led by 10 points from McLaughlin, eight from Towt, and seven from Diego Campisano as the Jacks shot 44.8% from the field through the first 20 minutes on the floor. Eastern Washington went 42.3% from the field in the first frame, led by 12 from Mason Williams and seven from Andrew Cook. With five rebounds in the first frame, Towt became the Jacks all-time leading rebounder in Northern Arizona program history, surpassing a record set in 1962 by Don Buttrum at 1,044.

Coming out of halftime, Jackson had a statement dunk to keep the momentum in favor of the Lumberjacks, followed by back-to-back triples from Ryan Abelman and Campisano to hold a 42-37 lead with 17:25 to play. 

Heading into the under-12 media timeout, the Jacks held their largest lead of the game so far at 50-43, and extended it on a McLaughlin driving layup. Jackson capitalized on EWU's next miss to take a layup inside, forcing the Eagles to take a timeout with 10:08 on the clock.

A 10-0 run sparked over a three-minute span for Northern Arizona, holding the Eagles scoreless for five minutes on the floor, extended the lead to 56-43.

The Jacks shot 44.4% from the field led by McLaughlin's 17 points, followed by 16 from Campisano and 13 from Jackson. NAU rallied back from having 10 turnovers in the first half by having only four after the break.