NAU basketball upsets Big Sky Tournament No. 1 seed Eastern Washington on buzzer-beater

The NAU men's basketball team is two wins away from the NCAA Tournament.

Oakland Fort hit a 3-pointer as time expired Sunday as the Lumberjacks upset No. 1 seed Eastern Washington in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky Tournament in Boise, Idaho, 81-80.

NAU, the No. 9 seed in the tourney, will play No. 4 seed Montana in the semifinals on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. MST in a game that can be seen on ESPNU. The winner of the Big Sky Tournament earns an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.

It is the first time NAU has made the Big Sky semifinals since 2015.

Eastern Washington had won 13 straight games against the Lumberjacks and had ended NAU's season in the conference tournament the past two years.

Fort, a true freshman, had 15 points for NAU, tying a career high, but none were bigger than the buzzer-beating 3-pointer off a pass from junior Jalen Cone, who had 11 points of his own.

When asked after the game if he thought the shot was going in, Fort said, "Yes, I did."

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Xavier Fuller and Nik Mains led NAU with 16 points each.

Carson Towt had 10, giving NAU five playing in double figures.

"What a day. March Madness has officially arrived in the Big Sky Conference, at least for the biased NAU opinion that I have," NAU coach Shane Burcar said. "The character of our guys throughout the season – we are all aware that we have lost tough games. We talked before the game that if you had a chance to win in January, February, or March, you'd pick March. It was a great college basketball game, it was back and forth and we hit a couple of breaks at the end to come through. We had a missed free throw and had a few breaks and were able to execute in the last 30 or seconds. Jalen Cone had a choice to go downhill and shoot it, or kick it out, and they doubled him. Oakland has been having a great tournament, and I couldn't be happier for NAU. We'll remember this forever."

NAU is now 11-22 on the season and 5-13 in Big Sky games.

Eastern Washington, the regular season champions in the conference, fell to 22-10.

Reach Jeremy Cluff at jeremy.cluff@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Big Sky Tournament shocker: NAU basketball upsets Eastern Washington