After a strong first half of basketball, Eastern Washington’s men’s offense went cold in the second half of their game against Northern Arizona on Jan. 23.

The Eagles held a 33-28 lead after the first half, where they shot 54.2 percent from the field. However, EWU made just 33.3 percent of their attempts in the second half, leading to a 70-61 loss.

Eastern Washington struggled to shoot the three-point shot, making 6 of 22 total attempts from beyond the arc. In the second half, the Eagles went 3 for 14 from deep.

In comparison, the Lumberjacks improved as the game went on. After converting on 34.8 percent of their field goal attempts in the first half, NAU scored 40 points in the second half while shooting 44.8 percent from the field.

Sophomore guard Sebastian Hartmann scored EWU’s first 2 points of the game on a jump shot. He led the team in first-half points with 7 and finished the game with 11 points. After averaging 3.0 points per game as a freshman, Hartmann is now averaging 9.8 points per game and has improved his three-point percentage from 19.4 percent to 37.7 percent.

Sophomore guard Mason Williams, who started in EWU’s last six games, came off the bench for the Eagles but still scored his fourth highest point total of the season. He scored five points in the first half and led the team with 18 points while also having 2 steals.

Williams has had a similar improvement to Hartmann in his second season, improving from 3.8 points last year to 12.9 this season. He is third on the team in points per game, while Hartmann ranks fourth.

Northern Arizona’s second-half run was led by senior guard Trent McLaughlin and junior forward Diego Campisano. McLaughlin scored 16 of his team-high 20 points, and Campisano had 8 of his 17 total points.

McLaughlin is NAU’s leading scorer this season. He is averaging 21.5 points per game and also leads the team with 1.6 steals per game.

Campisano is averaging 6.2 points per game. However, that number is quickly increasing. He has scored at least 17 points in each of the Lumberjacks’ last four games.

After this loss, the Eagles lost 62-67 to Northern Colorado on Jan. 25, and now have an overall record of 6-15. EWU is 2-6 in conference games. The team will travel to play Idaho State in their next game on Thursday, Jan. 30. The game will start at 6:00 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+ or listened to on The Varsity Network.