Northern Arizona reserve guards Zach Filsen and Jermaine Bishop directed a surge over the final eight minutes of play that the Lumberjacks parlayed into an 80-76 victory over the Montana Grizzlies in Big Sky Conference play before 4569 fans at Dahlberg Arena Saturday.
The win moved NAU to 16-10 and 8-5 in conference play, good for sole possession of second place behind league-leader Portland State, a 76-73 victor over Weber State. Montana slipped to 12-13 and 6-6 and dropped into a fifth-place tie with Idaho State, which lost 63-53 to Eastern Washington.
Filzen converted two free throws that broke a 60-60 deadlock, and then minutes later hit back-to-back jumpers off of drives into the key that secured a final Lumberjack lead in a game that saw 11 ties and 14 lead-changes.
During that same span, Bishop stole the ball – which he converted into an early-offense assist – made two of three
free throws, dished a second critical assist, and then played efficient guard-deny defense over the final two minutes to secure the Lumberjacks’ win.
“It seemed like Filzen got in there three or four times and he was able to finish or draw a foul,” said Montana center Andrew Strait.
“You know, they’re a shooting team and we were playing them as shooters and crawling up into them. And... they did a job of getting by us. We’ve got to do a better job of keeping them out of the paint,” said Strait.
The NAU win halted two streaks – Montana’s three-game surge that had put them into position to challenge for second place – and a Lumberjack swoon of four losses over five games.
PHOTOS: Top – Jordan Hasquet (#2, top) battles NAU's Kyle Landry for a rebound.
The Jacks out-rebounded the Griz 35-24. Middle, Ceylon Elgin-Taylor is
fouled by NAU guard Josh Wilson as he drives to the bucket. Wilson was whistled
for a flagrant foul. (Bottom) Matt Martin scores past NAU guard Zach Filsen on a breakaway in first half action.
The Jacks did it by shooting a sizzling 70.6% of their second-half field goals, finishing the game with a 60.5% average.
Montana, which had shot over 50% in its three wins, made only 37.5% of its second-half shots. Perhaps the most telling shooting stat, however, was that the Montana made only 7-of-24 three-point shots (29.2%) on mostly open looks.
The game featured several dramatic swings in momentum for both teams... and some absolute interruptions of momentum as well, as game officials whistled the teams evenly for a numbing 51 fouls, including two flagrant fouls.
It was Montana’s inability to take advantage at the free throw line that kept the Lumberjacks in the game early. The Grizzlies converted only 3-of-11 first-half free throw attempts, finishing the first half with a slim 39-36 lead off of Strait’s steal and open-court dunk.
Strait (6-points) and Jordan Hasquet (a long-range trey) then led Montana to an early 48-41 second-half lead, only to see the Lumberjacks tie it at 48-all on three quick buckets within a 70-second span.
The Grizzlies responded by quickly building the lead back to six, at 60-54, before the Jacks made another six-point run to tie the game at 60. That’s when Filzen and Bishop took over.
To Montana Coach Wayne Tinkle, that was a critical juncture of the game.
“I had a gut feeling we should have gone zone when we got up by six because of who they had in the game and who they had on the bench,” said Tinkle.
“But we didn’t, and then they just kind of took us off the dribble and scored some points and went on a little bit of a run.”
That was also the point when the Lumberjacks got tough, physically contesting every Grizzly field goal attempt. Only seven of Montana’s final 20 points were from field goals. And, though the Grizzlies improved at the free throw line – upping their conversion rate to a modest 19-for-30 at 63.3% – game play was frequently halted for trips to the line.
“There wasn’t much flow to the game there, was there?” said Tinkle. It seemed like any way we got momentum going, somehow it was taken away from us. I’ll say it like that.”
Strait agreed. “It was a really physical game. A lot of fouls called," said the Montana post. “It was tough to, you know, get some momentum going. It seemed like every time up and down the court there was a whistle blown.”
Said Tinkle: “I think they were more physical than us. Our guys were cutting and running our stuff and they always had somebody hanging on to them and I think that caused us some frustration and we settled for mediocre instead of being tougher mentally and finding a way to get through it.”
Until that point, the game featured a standoff between two of the league’s top post players. Strait was nearly unstoppable, converting 7-of-10 field goals and 9-of-14 free throws for 23 points. Lumberjacks' senior post, Kyle Landry was unstoppable. He shot a perfect 6-of-6 from the field and made 6-of-11 free throws to finish with 18.
Landry and Filzen were the only Lumberjacks to reach double figures, while Montana got double-digit scoring from Strait, Kyle Sharp (13), Jordan Hasquet (12), and Matt Martin (10).
NAU outrebounded the Grizzlies 35-24, but Montana reversed the flow of the game frequently with eight steals and six fast-break points.
The Grizzlies are now faced with a dilemma similar to their first homestand in early January. Any hopes of hosting a first-round playoff game rest on Montana’s need to gain at least a split over next week’s road matches at Weber State and Idaho State.
The Lumberjacks, meanwhile, are positioned well for a second-place first-round bye.
