Coming into Saturday night's game between Montana and NAU it was tough to tell which of the two teams was the hottest in the Big Sky Conference.
That's no longer an issue.
Montana, winners of four of its last five games entering Saturday's showdown with the Lumberjacks, used a 21-3 run in the second half to hand NAU an 84-64 loss at the Walkup Skydome.
The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Lumberjacks, who now find themselves at 5-5 in Big Sky play and 11-10 overall.
"My team tonight did not show up ready to play basketball,." NAU coach Mike Adras said. "We weren't mentally here. When it's going OK, everything's good, when it's not, it's not. That's just a sign of our youth more than anything. When it rears its ugly head it's not a pretty sight."
Whether it was the team's youth or just a hot team running out of gas, it wasn't pretty for the Lumberjacks in the second half, that's for sure.
NAU managed to take a one-point lead into halftime, leading the Grizzlies, 30-29. The Jacks came out fine to start the half and grabbed a 45-43 lead at the 12:40 mark when Cameron Jones converted on a jumper. What followed was an onslaught by Montana senior guard Anthony Johnson and his teammates.
Johnson nailed a jump shot nine seconds after Jones' to tie the game and Montana never looked back. Johnson's hoop started a 21-3 run with his jumper and the senior, who has continually given Adras and the Jacks headaches, scored 13 straight points to leave no doubt who is the hottest team in the conference.
"Anthony Johnson decided to take over," said Adras of the difference between the first half and second. "We didn't have anybody that wanted to defend him. He realized that and decided that it was his game and he was going to do what he wanted to do with the game, and he did that."
Added Jones: "They wanted it more than us in the second half. I thought they played better than us in the first half, but we still had the one-point lead. We came out with energy in the second, but when they made their run, we went down in the dumps like we've been known to do in the past. We can't do that. We have to pick ourselves up."
At no point in the second half could the Jacks pick themselves up and stop the monster run the Grizzlies were on. All total, Montana was 19 of 25 from the field (76 percent) in the game's second 20 minutes, while the Jacks struggled from the field, going just 13-for-29.
Johnson scored 25 of his game-high 28 points in the second half and guard Will Cherry, who finished with 19, had 15 in the second half.
On their own, the duo managed to outscore NAU 40-34 in the second half and did most of their damage driving to the basket on NAU's guards.
"They just drove on us. That's clearly what it was," Jones said. "Their guards got deep on us in the paint and scored. The first half we beared down on it and the second half they exposed us. They shot such a high percentage because they were shooting layups on us. You can't win like that."
The Grizzlies had 22 points in the paint in the second half, most off Cherry and Johnson's driving.
"We respect the heck out of Mike Adras. He had the team in great shape and we knew we were going to be in for a real bear of a game," Montana coach Wayne Tinkle said. "It's anybody's game at halftime and we just challenged our guys to win the mental and physical game over the last 20 minutes."
Jones led NAU with 22 points, scoring more than 20 points for the fifth straight game. Junior forward DeAngelo Jones finished with 14 in just 16 minutes and sophomore center Josh Lepley added 13 points in 19 minutes.
The loss marked the second time this season the Jacks have suffered a loss on their homecourt by 20 or more points. The first one came when NAU lost by 25 to Weber State on Jan. 9. The Jacks responded to that loss with the four-game winning streak that ended Saturday, giving Adras hope that the team can again respond to a tough loss.
"We can respond. We've shown that," Adras said. "Now, we don't play for another (seven) days. We'll evaluate what we've done the past couple of weeks. When they see themselves and what we talked about, they'll get a better understanding of what coach is talking about. Coach says something, they don't get it right away. They haven't had enough repetition. When they hear it and see it, they do a better job of making the adjustment."
Daniel Berk can be reached at dberk@azdailysun.com or 556-2251.
