FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) _ Aaron Bond scored 16 points and Kelly Golob chipped in with 15 as Northern Arizona wrapped up its regular season with a 69-59 victory over Montana Saturday night.
The Lumberjacks (15-12, 6-8 Big Sky) clinched a winning season with the victory and wrapped up the No. 5 seed in next week's conference tournament.
Northern Arizona will face fourth-seeded Idaho State in the first round of the Big Sky tournament Saturday in Pocatello, Idaho.
Montana (13-16, 7-7) is the No. 3 seed in the tournament and will host the winner of Saturday's Montana State-Sacramento State game in the tournament's first round Saturday.
The Lumberjacks rallied from a seven point first half deficit and stifled the Grizzlies in the opening minutes of the second half to take control of the game.
Montana went 9:29 without a field goal at the end of the first half and the start of the second half, and Northern Arizona took advantage of the dry spell to turn a 31-24 deficit into a 41-35 lead.
David Bell, who scored 17 first-half points and finished with a career-high 29 points and hit 8 of 11 3-pointers, broke the drought with a 3-pointer with 13:06 to play to cut NAU's lead to 41-38.
But the Lumberjacks responded with seven straight points, capping the run with a Ryan McDade basket, as NAU opened a 48-38 lead.
Montana would get no closer than eight points the rest of the way.
UM freshman Kevin Criswell was held to nine points on 3 of 14 shooting.
Sac State men's team beat the Bobcats, 72 - 52. Overall, not so good of a weekend for Montana State. Bobcat men's team are now out of the playoffs.
The Griz will be playing Sac State next saturday March 8th in Missoula Montana. I think this will be a good match up for Griz, though beating a team 3 times in a row will be tough.
In a way though, this loss may be good, because Griz could be facing NAU in first round. Griz have a hard time against teams with big inside players. Especially when a team has a good player like NAU's McDade. I like Griz's chances against Sac St.
First round games are:
Sac. State at Montana
NAU at ISU
EWU and WSU have first round byes with WSU taking on the team with lowest seed and EWU taking on the highest remaining seed.
First round game would really be hopping if Bobcats won. But no such luck.
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