Sac State men’s basketball suffers crushing loss to NAU

Hornets drop their second straight game in 62-61 loss to Lumberjacks

Jordan Latimore

Junior guard for Sac State Deshaun Highler at the free-throw line against Northern Arizona Thursday, Feb. 4, 2022 in The Nest. Highler finished with seven points and three rebounds in the Hornets’ 62-61 loss against the Lumberjacks.

Jordan Latimore
February 4, 2022

When the Sacramento State men’s basketball team faced off against Northern Arizona earlier this year in Flagstaff, sophomore guard Jalen Cone dropped 36 points in a staggering loss for the Hornets. Some Sac State players said they knew the next time they played the Lumberjacks, they wanted to force other guys to beat them.

Though they held Cone to just 10 points, a 62-61 loss at home Thursday evening in The Nest allowed that philosophy to reign exactly true.

The Hornets’ opening minutes in this matchup were extremely sluggish on both ends. In the opening five-minute stretch, Sac State went just 1-6 from the field and seemed to have some trouble matching up with the physicality of the Lumberjacks on the boards.

Northern Arizona dominated Sac State on the glass in the first half, with the Hornets being out-rebounded 19-16.

“They out-rebounded us by seven, which isn’t terrible, but they were all timely rebounds,” senior forward Bryce Fowler said. “It was more so 50-50 balls, like balls that were just there for us to take, and we just didn’t take ’em.”

However, Sac State did find some life after their flat start, going on an 8-0 run at the 15-minute mark. The run was ignited by junior guard Zach Chappell and his ability to score in one-on-one actions. Chappell came into Thursday night’s outing averaging 19.4 ppg over his past four games.

Sac State had a 19-13 lead at one point, until it all suddenly vanished.

Despite the slight offensive surge Sac State was able to unpack, it was quickly trampled by the NAU team that found a spark off of their increased defensive intensity.

In the final 10-minute stretch, the Lumberjacks outscored the Hornets 15-2, primarily because of their ability to guard the perimeter and limit offensive opportunities for Sac State. NAU forced the Hornets starting guards to shoot 6-14 and force seven turnovers due to their amped-up on-ball pressure.

This led to a dispiriting deficit for the Hornets going into the halftime break, down 29-19 to the Lumberjacks.

“[We] gotta focus on winning each and every possession, winning balls, not giving ’em a second chance with low boards or anything like that,” senior guard William FitzPatrick said. 

Sac State, however, came charging back into this matchup, erupting a 10-2 run to open the second half. The Hornets appeared to have found  a scheme that worked well against the Lumberjacks, as they ran a high pick and roll with junior center Jonathan Komagum, feeding him cutting to the rim.

Finishing with 12 points and eight rebounds, Komagum had a very active night for the Hornets, who found themselves needing a spark to make runs.


“I liked [Komagum’s] activity offensively on the glass,” Hornets head coach Brandon Laird said. “I thought he did a good job, getting in on balance and finishing well around the rim.”

After climbing back into this one matchup the Hornets looked like they were in cruise control near the 13-minute mark as they had a 40-33 lead, and just like that it dissipated as NAU made yet another run.

As Sac State was able to shut down Virginia Tech transfer-guard Jalen Cone to a 2-7 shooting performance, his teammates stepped up while he struggled, as the Lumberjacks splashed an array of threes.

All of a sudden, NAU was knocking on the door and taking the lead back into their own hands. 

The final 10-minutes stretch of this game is where things got extremely tight, as the matchup saw four lead changes in this span.

In the final minute of action, NAU was able to score and go up one at a score of 60-59 with 19 seconds remaining. Off of an inbound play, Fowler on the following Sac State possession, NAU junior guard Jay Green stole the ball on a bad pass, sealing the win for Lumberjacks who went on to make their final free throws.

“It’s a reflection of the season,” Laird said about the final closing minutes of the game. “There’s a lot of little things here and there that we could have done better the last couple minutes that we didn’t do.”

Sac State’s next game is on the road in Portland, Oregon on Saturday at 7 p.m to take on Portland State.