FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Redshirt senior Kenna McDavis tied her career-high with 27 points and freshman Khiarica Rasheed complemented her with a career-best 17 points herself in a 79-59 Northern Arizona women's basketball victory over North Dakota on Saturday. In the last Big Sky meeting between the two teams – North Dakota will depart the conference at the end of the season – NAU earned an emphatic win to improve to 6-19 overall and 3-11 in conference.
 
"Whatever team gets hot at the right time, that's what tournament time is about," said head coach Loree Payne. "For us, it's about building momentum one game at a time. This was the first game that we put 40 minutes together since Arizona (on Dec. 7). That's a good sign for us. If we continue to focus on the details, we could surprise some people come March."
 
Mired in a deep slump having shot just 21.6 percent from behind the arc over her last nine games, McDavis erupted for a 7-of-11 three-point performance in the Skydome on Saturday. She became the fifth player in program history to make seven threes in a game. Notching her sixth 20-point game of the season, McDavis helped NAU drain a season-best 10 threes at a 47.6 percent clip.
 
"I thought I played pretty well, but we won because the team played well," McDavis said. "A lot of people stepped up and hit huge shots. It wasn't just threes. Khi hit jumpers. They couldn't really hang with us tonight."
 
With McDavis doing the bulk of her damage on the perimeter, Rasheed handled the paint despite being undersized against a Fighting Hawk starting front line that stood at 6-2 and 6-3. Rasheed made six of her seven shots, in addition to a 5-for-8 showing at the line, to set a new personal best.
 
Redshirt senior Olivia Lucero continued her strong play of late, scoring 18 points and registering a team-leading five assists, while junior Kaleigh Paplow came up a bucket shy of a double-double with eight points and 11 rebounds in what was a well-rounded team effort to snap a three-game losing streak to North Dakota.
 
"Kenna shot the best she has all year and with Olivia scoring 18 and Kaleigh coming up huge with 11 boards, they were solid," Payne said. "If our Big 3 can play good-to-great and the rest of our players play solid, we're going to have a lot of opportunities to have success. We got a lot of contributions from everyone who played."
 
It was North Dakota who snagged the early advantage, jumping out to a 14-4 lead five minutes into the game. However after shooting 53.3 percent in the first quarter with eight made baskets, the Fighting Hawks found it hard to score the rest of the game. North Dakota made just 12 total field goals in the final three quarters and finished the game on 32.8 percent shooting.
 
The Lumberjacks trailed 20-15 at the end of the first quarter, but took the lead for good late in the second quarter and went into the halftime with a 31-28 advantage. Consecutive threes by junior Tate Tsingine and Lucero capped a 9-2 run to start the second half to extend NAU's lead to 40-30.
 
NAU's advantage grew as large as 14 points in the third, only for North Dakota to slice it to six before Paplow beat the quarter buzzer on an offensive putback to send the 'Jacks into the final period ahead 51-43.
 
Behind 10 points each from McDavis and Rasheed in the fourth quarter, NAU not only refused to give the lead up, but the Lumberjacks turned on the rout. Rasheed scored the Lumberjacks' first seven points of the period and McDavis hit three treys to secure NAU's second-largest margin of victory this season.
 
NAU shot 9-for-11 in the fourth quarter to wrap up a 45.9 percent showing as a team. Saturday marked the third straight game in which the Lumberjacks have shot better than 45 percent from the field and 44 percent from three.
 
The Lumberjacks notched 17 assists to 10 turnovers. The larger North Dakota squad held the narrow 41-39 advantage on the glass, but NAU managed to outscore the visitors by 10 in the paint.
 
NAU faces Sacramento State and Portland State next Thursday and Saturday respectively on its final road trip of the regular season. The Lumberjacks' first game of the week versus the Hornets will tip-off at 8 p.m. MST from Sacramento, Calif.