SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Northern Arizona women's basketball team stuck together and survived Sacramento State's frenetic rally to leave The Nest with a gutty 95-90 overtime win on Thursday. NAU got double-double efforts from four players and outrebounded Sacramento State by an incredible 71-42 margin, but still needed to dig deep to earn its second straight win and third in the last four games.
"I'm thinking two words, wild game," said head coach
Loree Payne. "I'm just really proud of the team. This game was similar to a couple in the non-conference and early in conference, where we lost a lead and they hit some big shots. Instead of us folding, we took it back and that shows growth. Tonight, the resilience was incredible. We grew as a team tonight."
Coupled with its win at Southern Utah on Feb. 10, NAU notched a second consecutive road victory for the first time in more than four years. The Lumberjacks also snapped a five-game losing streak in Sacramento, picking up their first win in The Nest since March 3, 2011.
More importantly, NAU improved to 4-11 in conference play and now owns the head-to-head tiebreaker with Sacramento State, who is 3-12 in league. The Lumberjacks, now one game behind North Dakota for the No. 9 seed in the conference tournament, are 7-19 overall.
Redshirt senior
Olivia Lucero tied a season-best with 26 points – her fourth 20-point game in her last six – and pulled down a season-high 12 rebounds. She was one of four players to record a double-double along with redshirt senior
Kenna McDavis (18 points, 11 rebounds), freshman
Khiarica Rasheed (season-high 19 points, 12 rebounds) and junior
Kaleigh Paplow (15 points, 14 rebounds). Paplow's 14 boards tied a career-high as did her team-leading seven assists.
NAU's 71 rebounds are a season-best and are the third-most in a game in school history. It bested the Lumberjacks' total of 70 earlier in the season against Antelope Valley. NAU posted 51 rebounds alone on the defensive end.
As well as they cleaned up the glass, the 'Jacks left the door open for the Hornets largely due to 27 turnovers – leading to a 24-5 Sacramento State advantage in points off turnovers – against the Hornets' trapping defense.
Still, NAU battled through losing a 15-point lead and came up with two defensive stops at the end to seal up the wild victory. Junior
Tate Tsingine cleaned up an NAU miss with a putback that swung the lead in NAU's favor one final time at 91-90 with 1:06 left in overtime. After the Lumberjacks forced a one-and-done on the opposite end, Tsingine calmly knocked down two free throws with 13.1 seconds. Lucero capped the game-ending 6-0 run with two final freebies following another Hornet missed three.
"I wanted each player on the floor to believe we were going to win the game," Payne said. "The biggest thing was being fundamental down the stretch. Sacramento State forces you to rush your offense and we got wrapped up in that at moments throughout the game. But in the overtime period, we were a much more fundamental team."
An 11-0 run put NAU on top, 20-7, six minutes into the ball game, but yet the Lumberjacks led by just four at 24-20 despite shooting 80 percent in the first quarter. NAU struck quickly to begin the second quarter, scoring 10 of the first 12 points, to push its lead out to a dozen.
NAU led by as much as 15 in the second quarter and appeared to be cruising up 49-37 at the break. However, the Lumberjacks' white-hot 18-for-27 showing (66.7 percent) from the field in the first half quickly took a dive following halftime. The Lumberjacks shot just 30.2 percent in the last 25 minutes.
After Sacramento State climbed back to 58-54 in the third, NAU responded with a 7-0 run and eventually led by nine, 68-61, going into the fourth. The Hornets managed to tie the game at 71-71 with 5:27 remaining in regulation and then took their first lead (79-78) since 5-3 with 2:17 on the clock. NAU responded and McDavis knocked down a three with under a minute to provide the 'Jacks with an 83-79 advantage, only to see the Hornets tie it at 83-83.
Out of a timeout, Lucero drove towards the basket and connected on a floater to put NAU ahead with 9.5 seconds left. However, the Lumberjacks surrendered the game-tying basket on the very next possession. Lucero had a chance to win the game in regulation, but her layup was unsuccessful sending the game into an extra period.
There, the lead was traded three times before Tsingine exchanged the lead one final time on NAU's 20th offensive rebound of the game. Fittingly, NAU moved ahead for good on a second-chance opportunity as NAU outscored Sacramento State, 19-9, on second chances.
Sacramento State took an astounding 97 shots, but only strung together a 35.1 field goal percentage. The Hornets were just 22.9 percent from behind the arc, making 8-of-35 three-point attempts. NAU shot 44.3 percent overall and used a significant advantage at the free throw line to its advantage. NAU was 26-of-38 at the charity stripe compared to only 14-of-20 by Sacramento State.
Tsingine scored nine points – none bigger than her last four – in her second straight start while tying freshman
Kaprice Boston for team-high honors with two steals. Rasheed totaled a season-high three blocks.
NAU concludes the road trip at Portland State on Saturday at 2 p.m. MST.
