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The team from the north came to play Saturday evening at Wells Fargo Arena, showing heart and determination to go along with some impressive range defeating the Sun Devils 69-68 thank to a game-winning three from Stallon Saldivar (seen in photo). Keala King and Chanse Creekmur both had fantastic shooting days for the Devils with 16 and 15 points respectively on a combined 70% shooting but NAU's Saldivar stole the spotlight in this in-state match up though, with a career high 24 points, including 6 of 8 three point shooting to go along with nine assists.
Despite owning an extreme height advantage over the visiting Lumberjacks, the Sun Devils never really took advantage of it, allowing them to hang around for the entire 40 minutes before slipping up majorly at the end. Up only one point entering the final minute of play, King used a strong move in the middle to give ASU a 67-64 lead. After a Gabe Rogers jump shot pulled NAU back to being down only one, Trent Lockett went to the line with a chance to extend the lead back up to a more comfortable three in the final seconds. But after missing one of his free throws, the Lumberjacks drove the length of the court, setting up a Saldivar three pointer in which he showed extreme patience.
With the tables turned and the Devils now down one point instead, Creekmur attempted a full court pass with only 0.8 seconds remaining that hit the bottom of the scoreboard. With the turnover, the Lumberjacks quickly inbounded the ball leaving ASU stunned with no time remaining.
Arizona State was only able to attempt 13 free throws on the game and tied in the rebound category at 27. This is quite the embarrassing loss and one that coach Herb Sendek is sure not to be happy about. More soon to follow.