SportsJanuary 28, 1996

MOSCOW Before the season, Joe Cravens told his players they would be involved in a slew of tight games.

Why make the man a liar?

For the second straight game, the Vandals manufactured a close game, turning a 20-point first-half lead into a nervous 66-64 win Saturday night over Northern Arizona.

The Vandals, stiletto-sharp for a pivotal five-minute stretch in the first half, went the final five minutes of the second half without scoring a field goal, then found themselves in a jam when NAU's Jermone Riley found his 3-point stroke.

Was there some connection between those extremes?

"It showed us what we're able to do," UI guard Reggie Rose said of the Vandals' pretty 13-0 run that created a 33-13 lead with five minutes left in the first half.

"Then again, it made us become too relaxed," Rose said. "The second half we came out like, "We've got this game. These guys ain't better than us.' Then they came running like a bull, and we were just trying to stop them."

Everything seemed fine when Shawn Dirden canned a transition 3-pointer for a 64-51 Idaho lead with five minutes left, but Michael McNair hit a 3 for the Lumberjacks at 2:52 and Riley added two more at 2:10 and 1:24, slicing the gap to 64-62.

Dirden and Nate Gardner each went 1-for-2 at the line in the last 30 seconds, and meanwhile NAU's Charles Thomas was called for a critical traveling violation. Gardner's free throw made it 66-62 with 11 seconds left, and Riley hit a layin to create the final score at :05.

The Vandals, 3-2 in the Big Sky, stayed within a game in the loss column of Boise State, which took the conference lead Saturday by beating Montana State. Northern Arizona fell to 1-5.

The primary difference between the first and second halves was the play of Jason Jackman, Idaho's rangy 6-foot-9 post. He was in top form before the break, skying for defensive rebounds and scoring with deft jump-hooks and spin moves.

Early in the second half, a couple of officiating calls went against Jackman, and he went silent. Later, he effectively assumed inside position, but his jumper now refused to fall.

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Ten of his 14 points came in the first half, and by some statistical wonder he had negative-1 rebounds in the second, leaving him with a total of seven.

Maybe that's what you get for chipping at the refs.

"I got frustrated this is the first time it's happened this year and hopefully the last," Jackman said. "I need to keep myself calm."

When all else was failing, Idaho received a welcome boost from James Jones, the athletic but offensively quiet senior forward who recently lost his starter's job, at approximately the same time he lost it last year.

In a 70-second span early in the second half, he made a midcourt steal and dunk and a fallaway putback for a three-point play and a 46-33 lead, delaying NAU's comeback.

"I thought James Jones won the game,'' Cravens said. "He came off the bench and I thought he was the only guy (in the second half) who was upbeat and played with some enthusiasm."

Eddie Turner made similar contributions while scoring 15 points, though he later fueled NAU's rally by trying a baseball inbounds pass to try to solve NAU's full-court press. Brent Bowden made an easy steal and passed to Riley for the 3-pointer that made it 64-62.

"We decided to throw a pass that's not even part of what we're trying to do," Cravens said.

The last three NAU-Idaho games have been decided by a total of five points. All of them went Idaho's way, stretching its win streak over the Lumberjacks to 13 games overall and 10 at Moscow.

"We had an uphill battle all the way to where we had a chance," NAU coach Ben Howland said, "and couldn't quite get it done. It's hard to come back on the road and win a game, but I was proud of our effort."

The Vandals know the feeling, after their own string of tight losses earlier this month.

"We've lost more than our share of close ones," Jackman said. "So we need to take this one in stride. It's in the win column."

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