SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Junior college transfer DeAngelo Jones earned his first career start and broke out with a 28-point effort to lead NAU to a 88-72 victory over Santa Clara in the West Coast Classic on Wednesday night.

"I just played hard," said Jones, a transfer from Cochise College. "The coaches believed in me and I got the job done tonight. I have been working hard in practice and it paid off today."

NAU improved to 2-2 on the season and snapped a five-game road losing streak dating to last season. The Lumberjacks went 1-14 on the road last season.

NAU finishes up its brief two-game road trip Saturday at San Diego State. Tipoff is slated for 4 p.m. Arizona time.

"We have to finish the road trip off strong and try to get another win on Saturday," said Jones, who chipped in six rebounds.

Jones made his first start after scoring 10 points in three games off the bench to start the season. The 6-foot-5 forward from Seattle started in place of Shane Johannsen, who did not play after suffering a sprained ankle Monday in practice, and made 9-of-13 attempts from the field. He was 3-of-5 on 3-pointers and 7-of-9 from the line.

Cameron Jones, Gabe Rogers and Eric Platt each added 14 points. Cameron Jones and Platt led NAU with seven rebounds apiece.

Sophomore forward Josh Lepley also earned his first start of the season in place of Nick Larson and tallied seven points and six rebounds.

NAU shot 52.7 percent from the field, connected on 7 of 17 3-point attempts, and hit on 71 percent (23-of-31) from the charity stripe at the Leavey Center.

NAU's trapping defense contributed to 16 Broncos turnovers in the first half, which the Lumberjacks converted into 12 points.

Santa Clara turned the ball over on three straight possessions at the end of the half, helping the Lumberjacks open up a 44-36 lead at the break.

Leading by eight points at halftime, NAU went on a 20-7 run to start the second half to extend the lead to 20 points. Santa Clara cut the lead back to eight points, but NAU prevailed.

"We wanted to come out and bust the game open," Jones said of the second-half run. "We played defense and got some stops."