Northern Arizona will go on the road for the first time in 2023 when it travels to Portland State on Thursday night. The Lumberjacks have lost five of their last six games, including a 69-54 win against Montana State on Saturday. Portland State had lost five of its last six games prior to beating Idaho over the weekend.
Northern Arizona only has three wins against Division I teams this season, with one of them coming in overtime against Montana last Thursday. The Lumberjacks had lost their previous four games, despite being favored or single-digit underdogs in all of those contests. They only covered the spread in one of those games, which came in a 106-101 final as 9-point underdogs against Southern Utah. Northern Arizona was unable to build on its upset win against Montana, as it came up short against Montana State as a 6.5-point underdog in a 69-54 final on Saturday. The Lumberjacks only have one road win in their last 13 games.
Headed out West for a pair of games this week!#RaiseTheFlag | #BigSkyMBBhttps://t.co/24IM7XTSwK
— NAU Men's Basketball (@NAUBasketball) January 11, 2023
They need to improve their shooting numbers in this contest, as they are No. 295 in effective field goal percentage (47.2). Northern Arizona is shooting just 32.4% from 3-point range and 46.4% from inside the arc. The Lumberjacks’ strength has been their low turnover rate, which can be attributed to their experienced roster. They are facing a Portland State defense that is No. 31 in turnover rate, making that an intriguing part of this game. The Vikings have been terrible defensively outside of that, ranked No. 323 in field goal percentage and No. 329 in rebounding. Junior guard Jalen Cone leads Northern Arizona with 17.4 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, while senior guard Xavier Fuller is adding 10.4 points.