PRESCOTT VALLEY -- For two minutes, the Lumberjacks showed they could hang with an NCAA Tournament team.

Then they blinked and unraveled.

After a gaining an early 4-0 lead, the NAU men's basketball team was scoreless for about the next 7 1/2 minutes against BYU as turnovers mounted. After that, there wasn't much the Jacks could do and lost 87-52 Wednesday night at Tim's Toyota Center in Prescott Valley.

The Jacks (2-5 overall) committed 16 first-half turnovers and had one nearly every possession through one stretch of the game as the Cougars (5-2) proved to be too fast, too tall, too experienced and too athletic for NAU.

"It just seemed like one turnover after another," NAU head coach Mike Adras said. "I don't even think we were getting shot attempts.

"You're not going to win when you can't take care of the basketball, especially against a team that is that good."

Adras attributed the miscues to his young squad battling nerves. Playing in an actual arena, where most of the 3,215 fans were hostile, and against a storied basketball program, can only serve to give some seasoning to a roster that's filled with inexperience.

"Part of playing games like this is to help young guys, which we have, learn to grow when the situation presents itself," Adras said. "We haven't been in this situation; we haven't played a team like that -- we were rattled and I think this will help us in future games."

Things picked up for the Jacks in the second half as they slowed their pace and played a more controlled style of basketball. Freshman Colin Gruber led NAU with 13 points on 4 of 6 shooting and the offense found a rhythm once the Jacks stopped forcing passes on seemingly every possession.

"Just executing our stuff is what gets you open," Gruber said. "It was obviously very physical -- they are very big, they had a huge size advantage on us -- we had to try to use what we had."

Although the offense struggled throughout the game, that was by design for BYU coach Dave Rose.

"What (the Jacks) run is really good and really hard to guard," Rose said. "You have to be dialed in an communicate with each other."

One positive takeaway for the Jacks was their ability to rebound well enough against a team with an obvious height advantage. NAU kept even with BYU for most of the contest and was outrebounded just 38-32 in the end.

"We talked about wanting to rebound with them (Wednesday) and I though we did that very, very well," Adras said. "What we didn't do well is we left guys wide open for shots."

While the Jacks held BYU leading scorer Noah Hartsock to 11 points on 4 of 10 shooting, the defense's focus on the big men in the pain left guard Brock Zylstra wide open on the perimeter. He led the game with 23 points on 8 of 10 from the field, including 5 of 6 from 3-point range.

"They made us pay every single time," Adras said. "That was shooting practice for those guys.

"I can make shots when I'm wide open."

NAU plays at 4:30 Saturday at the University of Arizona. The Game will be shown on Fox Sports Arizona.

Jacob May can be reached at 556-2257 or jmay@azdailysun.com.