In a men’s basketball game with three ejections, two technical fouls and one flagrant foul, Northern Arizona outlasted Weber State 80-77 on Saturday afternoon thanks to 30 points from scorer extraordinaire Trent McLaughlin.

“It feels like if it can go wrong,” WSU head coach Eric Duft said, “it kind of is.”

The first half was a game of runs. The second half saw seven ties and 10 lead changes.

Weber State (6-10, 0-2 Big Sky) gave up a 68-64 lead but regained advantage 73-71 with 2:19 left after Vasilije Vucinic posted up for the final of his team-high 19 points.

Richie Young, NAU Athletics

The final margin came on the next sequence.

McLaughlin, who enters Sunday as the nation’s No. 2 leading scorer (23.0 points per game), drove the lane for a dunk to tie the game.

On Weber State’s ensuing trip, senior guard Miguel Tomley lost the ball trying to drive from the right wing. NAU guard Oakland Fort gathered it and raced to the rim. He missed, but Jayden Jackson cleaned up and threw to a trailing McLaughlin for a wide-open 3.

Pure. NAU led 76-73 with 1:24 remaining.

Blaise Threatt, who scored 15 points with six assists and one turnover (the aforementioned flagrant foul), tried to will his team back to the lead with two buckets.

Richie Young, NAU Athletics

Trailing 78-77 with 26 seconds left, Weber State pressed NAU into two timeouts and narrowly missed forcing a 10-second backcourt violation before ultimately fouling Fort with seven seconds to go.

Fort made both freebies and Dyson Koehler missed a 3-pointer off the front iron as time expired to end the game.

WSU had five players score in double figures for the second straight game, both losses. Koehler scorched the net for 13 first-half points but only took, and missed, two shots in the second half. Viljami Vartiainen came off the bench for 10 points, while Tomley added 10 despite shooting 2 of 9.

Jackson added 21 to McLaughlin’s big day. Weber won the rebound battle but NAU outdid the Wildcats in the paint 34-28 and made eight 3s to WSU’s seven.

Junior forward Nigel Burris did not play for Weber State after spraining his left ankle Thursday at Northern Colorado when a defender moved into his landing spot on a 3-pointer.

Richie Young, NAU Athletics

With Northern Arizona starting former center Carson Towt together with 7-footer Ali Ragab, Weber State countered with both Vucinic and Alex Tew in the starting lineup while also restoring Koehler to the starting five as he’s worked back from an ankle injury.

Both teams played freely to open the game and Weber State was hot offensively while subbing in Marko Sarenac and Declan Cutler early. Cutler scored on a pump-fake and reverse layup, then again on a post-up, while Vartiainen knocked down a 3 on a crosscourt pass from Threatt to give Weber State a 22-14 lead just eight minutes into the game.

The contest’s tenor, and scoreboard, changed there.

Threatt’s legs tangled with Towt’s as Threatt tried to follow his guard through the paint and Towt entered the post area, resulting in Towt going to the floor holding his leg.

Threatt, whistled for the foul, clapped his hands, as did Tew — presumably for their team’s good play to that point, unlikely because Towt got hurt. But Towt jumped up into Threatt’s face with a chest bump. Tew shoved Towt away from Threatt and NAU’s Diego Campisano pushed Tew.

Richie Young, NAU Athletics

The kerfuffle was over quickly, and both coaching staffs helped keep it that way.

What wasn’t over quickly was the resulting video review. In a delay of 13 1/2 minutes, referees reviewed video replays and deliberated what to do.

Just about 10 minutes in, referees told both teams the results: Towt and Tew were ejected, as was NAU reserve forward Jack Wistrcill for apparently leaving the bench and entering the court during the scuffle. NAU’s broadcast also said Sarenac and Campisano received technical fouls — though the official stats, seemingly inaccurately, did not indicate flagrants or technicals, only entering personal fouls.

It took Towt 90 seconds longer than Tew to leave the court, returning near midcourt to talk to coaches and then argue with one referee.

When play finally resumed, it took Weber State 3:45 more to score again. McLaughlin, clearly the most motivated on either team by the mild fracas, sparked the Lumberjacks on a 12-0 run capped with a Fort 3 and ended when Trevor Hennig made a triple for Weber State.

That started a 15-4 run for the Wildcats and WSU went up 37-28 with 3:50 left after Koehler made a 3-pointer, a tough fadeaway in the paint and a deep 3 in the space of a couple minutes.

With Burris hurt, Tomley in foul trouble and Tew ejected, WSU played a rotation of Threatt, Koehler, Hennig, Sarenac, Cutler and Saadiq Moore for a prolonged stretch of time and NAU came up with an 11-0 answer to retake the lead.

In what became a one-possession game to the end, the final play of the half proved important. On a missed Threatt 3-pointer seemingly at the buzzer, Cutler climbed the back of Leigh Rickwood-Pitt for a rebound attempt and drew a foul. Rickwood-Pitt made both free throws to give NAU a 41-38 halftime lead.

The margin was never greater than four points either way for the final 16:30 of game time, leading to McLaughlin’s triumph in the final two minutes.

WSU, which has struggled at the free-throw line, was 18 of 20 in this game.

‘THERE’S NO PANIC’

Duft has previously spoken about how last season, and many before, Weber State had good teams that played well to open the season but plateaued and faded when it mattered most. Thus, he’s tried to play this season “backwards” by giving freshmen consistent playing time and sticking to a plan that aims to get the Wildcats playing their best ball in February and March.

But, Weber State has lost six of its last seven games against Division I opponents and is 0-2 to start the Big Sky schedule. Good teams likely find ways to win some games WSU has lost, especially in defeats to Hawaii, Utah Valley and now Northern Arizona.

And now, in the midst of opening the league schedule with five road games in the first seven, WSU travels to play an Idaho State team next week that may end up being every other Big Sky team’s least-favorite matchup.

“That’s OK. It’ll flip for us,” Duft said after his quip about things going wrong. “I thought our team connectivity tonight — our guys were rallying around each other. … We’ve got to pick each other up when we’re not playing great individually and then just hang with the process. It’ll reward us. We’re doing the right things.

“We have high-character guys and we’re going to stick with them, we’re not going to panic. There’s no panic in our locker room; there’s no panic with our staff.”

For now, it sounds similar to how Dillon Jones spoke two years ago after WSU started 2-7, then won 16 of its next 23 before losing in double-overtime in the conference semifinals. But if that comes to pass for this team, it will mean a greater effort to create its own luck, as the saying goes, better health, better shotmaking and better defense.

Koehler missed the loss at North Dakota with an ankle injury, that after working back into playing shape when his ongoing medical situation limited his practice time to start the season. He shot 4 of 6 for 13 points and four rebounds in the first half Saturday.

“Dyson missed a lot of practice there … I think now he’s back to playing a little better rhythm,” Duft said. “He works so hard at it … and I think his mindset’s better.”

Burris, playing his best basketball of the season and securing a claim as WSU’s best 3-point shooter by a decent margin, is at least temporarily out after his injury Thursday. Duft said he hopes Burris can be ready to play after the half-bye leading to Idaho State in one week.

After taking 10 games of his freshman season to settle in, Vartiainen finished last year shooting 45.5% from the 3-point line over 22 games. He entered Saturday shooting 33.3% this year and carried a 14.3% clip over the last five games — though the sophomore was 2 of 4 from distance Saturday.

And Tomley, who shot better than 40% from 3 against Big Sky teams last season with Idaho State, continued his recent slump. He shot 2 of 11 in the final two nonconference games and is now 2 of 12 behind the arc to open Big Sky play, dropping him to 33.8% against Division I opponents.

Tomley won games for WSU against Bowling Green and Utah Tech but is not impacting games as of late. Duft said prior to Saturday’s game that he liked Tomley’s leadership in taking responsibility for poor play Thursday, and that they’ll move forward confidently that Tomley can snap out of his funk like he has at other times in his career.

“We tighten our circle, and there’s no pointed fingers and no blaming,” Duft said. “We’re a very connected team … character and connectivity will win out in the end.”

AROUND THE BIG SKY

Four of Saturday’s five Big Sky games finished with one-possession margins. The one that didn’t was Eastern Washington’s five-point home win over Montana State (EWU is 1-1 and MSU is 0-2).

Northern Colorado topped the aforementioned tough Idaho State (1-1) team in overtime to start league play 2-0. Montana is also 2-0 after winning a 73-71 battle at Idaho (1-1). Weber and MSU are 0-2.

Sacramento State beat Portland State in an ugly, 56-53 decision in the first game for those two teams. They combined to shoot 23.9% from 3 and 51.4% at the free-throw line.