"I felt like we had a pretty good offensive night," said head coach
Loree Payne. "Unfortunately, they got hot. You're not going to beat too many teams who hit 15 threes, but I felt we made it tough for them. For us, it's about putting together an offensive and defensive game plan to have success for 40 minutes."
The Vandals drained 15-of-35 behind the arc to outgun the Lumberjacks. NAU made eight threes, its most in over a month, including five in a run-and-gun second quarter. The Lumberjacks trimmed a double-digit deficit to one in the quarter on 57.1 percent shooting, but the Vandals offset the Lumberjack explosion with nine three-pointers of their own.
Idaho opened the game with a 10-0 run and took that 10-point margin, 48-38, into halftime due to 11 first half three-pointers. NAU missed its first five shots from the field, but collected itself to make six of its next 12 to bring the Lumberjacks within 19-13 at the end of first quarter.
The Vandal lead stood at 33-22 with six minutes left in the second quarter before redshirt senior
Kenna McDavis ignited a 7-0 Lumberjack run with a three. Junior
Kaleigh Paplow followed with a long jumper before going coast-to-coast for a steal and layup to force an Idaho timeout at the 4:55 mark.
Freshman
Kaprice Boston and Paplow hit back-to-back threes to slice NAU's deficit to 36-35 two minutes later. However, Idaho connected on four straight three-pointers without an NAU answer to extend the home team's advantage to 13 before Lucero was fouled just before the halftime buzzer. Lucero's three free throws snapped the 12-0 Vandal run providing NAU with some momentum before the half.
NAU's defense locked up in the third quarter, but the Lumberjacks were unable to make up ground on the scoreboard. Although the Vandals shot just 1-for-7 on long distance attempts in the third, they increased their advantage to 65-53 into the fourth quarter.
Consecutive baskets by redshirt freshman
Brianna Lehew did bring NAU within 58-52 with two minutes left in the third quarter before a 7-1 Idaho run to close the quarter. The Vandals then maintained a double-digit lead throughout the final period.
Struggling with turnovers – 18.7 per game over their last three games – the Lumberjacks only committed six on Saturday. The six turnovers were their second-lowest total of the season. Unfortunately, NAU was unable to cure its slow start issues as it never led in the game.
"We handled the ball much better tonight and that was a focus for us," Payne said. "Turnovers have been hurting us a lot. I felt our energy and effort was improved. We've been starting out games really slow, so my challenge to the team is our mental approach to the game. We have a hype factor missing from the start because you have to come out strong."
Paplow and McDavis also scored in double-figures with 11 and 10 points respectively. Lucero's six assists without a turnover was a driving force behind NAU's 15-to-6 assist to turnover ratio.
NAU shot 37.3 percent overall and outscored Idaho, 22-5, in bench scoring.
The 'Jacks are back in the Walkup Skydome next week starting with a Thursday night tip-off versus Montana State at 6:30 p.m.
