FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Despite a season-best performance from freshman Kaleigh Paplow and another stellar all-around performance by junior Taylor Leyva, the Northern Arizona women's basketball team could not keep pace with the long distance shooting of Idaho in a 72-51 loss in the Skydome Thursday night. The Lumberjacks were victim to 15 threes by the Vandals as they fell to 1-3 in conference place and 5-10 overall.

"Idaho is a quality team and you can give up rebounds and you can give up threes, but you can't give up both and expect to win," said head coach Sue Darling. "I was really proud of our effort though. We came out and played hard. We were a little undersized without Alyssa (Rader), but we have a team who can rebound. We just had to be the aggressors to the ball."

The 'Jacks were without freshman Alyssa Rader – the team's leading scorer and rebounder – due to an illness, and the Vandals took advantage by outrebounding the Lumberjacks, 51-33, including snagging 16 offensive boards.

Paplow came off the bench and played a season-high 32 minutes and produced with 13 points and four steals, both of which set new high marks during her debut season. Paplow also led the team with seven boards and made 3-of-5 from three-point range. Leyva totaled 11 points, six rebounds and a career-high seven assists along with three thefts herself.

"Kaleigh came in and provided more than numbers with energy, deflections and tie-ups," Darling said. "The same can be said about Taylor, who contributed all-around. But at the end of the day, we need to be able to stop teams from scoring and we're excited with the opportunity coming up on Saturday versus Eastern Washington."

NAU missed its first seven shots before redshirt junior Shay Young broke the seal to halt a 7-0 Idaho game-opening run. After starting cold, the Lumberjacks heated up by finishing the first quarter on a 7-0 run behind buckets from Leyva, junior Rene Coggins and Young to hold a 14-13 lead following a quarter of play.

Idaho managed to retake a six-point advantage before Coggins got going, making three consecutive baskets to cut the Vandal lead to 27-25. Idaho would take a five-point advantage, 32-27, into halftime and quickly pushed its lead out to double-digits 90 seconds into the second half.

Consecutive three-pointers by Leyva and Paplow capped an 8-0 Lumberjack run to bring the score to 42-38 with 5:15 remaining in the third quarter, but the Vandals responded with a 10-0 run themselves and never lost their double-figure lead the rest of the game.

Idaho, the nation's fifth-best three-point shooting team with over 10 made threes a game, shot 40.5 percent from behind the arc on Thursday. Of Idaho's 21 made baskets, 15 were from long distance as NAU was done in by the long ball. The Vandals shot just 36.2 percent overall compared to the Lumberjacks' 31.7 percent shooting, but NAU was minus-27 points on three-point shooting.

Coggins tallied her fifth consecutive double-digit scoring game with 11 points to give the Lumberjacks three scorers with at least 11 points. Young finished with eight points, all in the first half, off the bench and senior Mariah Willadsen chipped in six points.

The Lumberjacks wrap up their season-long homestand on Saturday in the Skydome at 6:30 p.m. versus Eastern Washington, who began the night as one of two unbeaten teams in conference play.