DeAngelo Jones Leads Men’s Basketball to Road Victory at Santa Clara

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Junior college transfer DeAngelo Jones, a transfer from Cochise College, broke out with a 28-point effort to lead Northern Arizona to a 88-72 victory over Santa Clara Wednesday night.

“I just played hard,” said Jones. “The coaches believed in me and I got the job done tonight. I have been working hard in practice and it paid off today.”

NAU improved to 2-2 on the season and snapped a five-game road losing streak dating to last season. The game was the second for the Lumberjacks in the West Coast Classic.

Jones made his first career start after scoring 10 points in three games off the bench to start the season. He made 9-of-13 attempts from the field, including 3-of-5 three-pointers and 7-of-9 from the line.

Cameron Jones, Gabe Rogers and Eric Platt each added 14 points in the winning effort for the Lumberjacks

NAU shot 52.7 percent from the field and made seven three-pointers and connected on 71 percent (23-of-31) from the charity stripe.

NAU led by eight points at halftime and went on a 20-7 run to start the second half to extend the lead to 20 points. Santa Clara cut the lead back to eight points but NAU revailed.

“We wanted to come out and bust the game open,” said Jones of the second half run. “We played defense and got some stops.”

Jones started for Shane Johannsen who did not play after suffering a sprained ankle Monday in practice. Nick Larson came off the bench with sophomore Josh Lepley earning his first start of the season.

“We have to finish the road trip off strong and try to get another win on Saturday.” Said Jones.

The Lumberjacks travel to San Diego State for a game on Saturday at 3 p.m. Pacific (4 p.m. Mountain). The game can be heard on the Sodexo Lumberjack Radio Network in Flagstaff on KAFF AM 930.