More than a decade after tying the program's record for wins and earning the lone NCAA Tournament bid, the 2005-06 Northern Arizona women's basketball team is set to be inducted into the school's hall of fame.
"It was special and I am really happy this team is being recognized," said former Lumberjacks head coach Laurie Kelly. "These young ladies were able to do something nobody had ever been able to do again. I think they really helped make a mark on NAU basketball."
Northern Arizona's 2005-06 roster included four of the program's top 13 scorers, with Alyssa Wahl finishing as the all-time scorer before moving to No. 2 five years ago. Sade Cunningham currently ranks sixth, Kim Winkfield sits 11th and Megan Porter is 13th, with all four players among the school's 16-player, 1,000-point club.
Wahl also ranks second in rebounds, with another member of the hall of fame inductee team Laura Dinkins third on the all-time boards list. Cunningham and Winkfield sit 1-2 atop the all-time assists list, and all five rank among the program's top 10 in games played.
Kelly confidently called it the greatest collection of talent the Northern Arizona women's program has ever had, breaking down the 17-woman roster player by player.
"It just had such a great balance of so many different things. Alyssa Wahl is a 6-2 kid that could stroke it from the 3-point line," Kelly said. "She was not a power player, she was so finesse. But she was so good around the block and her long arms, she could really score and she was very creative with her ability to score inside."
Kelly added Wahl's ability to pull defenses away from the basket and shoot from outside at her height thrived in an age of motion offense when added to the group of Winkfield, Cunningham and Oklahoma State transfer Sandra Viksryte.
"She was just a great floor leader. She could handle the ball, she could defend the ball and she was really good at getting the ball to those scorers in a position they were able to score in," Kelly said of Cunningham.
Winkfield finished 38th in the nation in 3-pointers per game in 2005-06, while Wahl's field goal percentage ranked 39th and Cunningham's assists per game landed 41st in the nation respectively.
In addition to Northern Arizona's offense, which finished 14th in assists and 24th in field goal percentage in the NCAA, the team included a future Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
"You have somebody like Laura Denkins, who is one of the top defensive players that I think has ever played here," Kelly said "Defensively when we were playing Baylor in the NCAA Tournament, she's able to match them athlete for athlete. It just shows the type of athleticism and defense that she brought to us."
REACHING THE POSTSEASON
During a trip to Puerto Rico for a December tournament, Northern Arizona topped then-Big 12 member Colorado 84-83 in overtime. While the Buffaloes finished that season 9-21 overall, the win against a bigger program on a neutral court in overtime boasted the Lumberjacks going forward.
"We had gone out there for a team trip, kind of a team-building thing and you get to play two games when you are there," said Kelly, who was in her third year as Northern Arizona's head coach. "Colorado wasn't very good then, but still in the record book it says we beat Colorado. Especially a close game like that on a neutral floor, you really felt like our team was confident."
Following the win over the Buffaloes, the Lumberjacks did not drop back-to-back games until the final two weeks of the regular season. Playing shorthanded, Northern Arizona lost a pair of games by two points and then its third straight by 10 points. The three-game streak included its only loss in a record-setting 12-1 home record.
After recovering with a victory against Portland State in the regular-season finale, the Lumberjacks faced the Vikings for the second time in five days in the first round of the Big Sky tournament.
"We were heavy on upperclassmen and we had high expectations. We felt that we could win the Big Sky outright," Kelly said. Our goal was to host the conference tournament, we planned to be the 1 seed."
Off-court issues late in the season helped send the Lumberjacks to the No. 3 seed in the tournament, where Northern Arizona beat No. 6 Portland State 80-68, No. 2 Montana 73-66 and No. 5 Weber State 74-59 in the Big Sky title game.
"There was a lot of challenges on and off the floor, and I think that easily some of those challenges could have caused our team to just throw in the towel," said Kelly, with a death in a player's family and suspension among them. "That didn't happen. Those obstacles that were thrown our way only strengthened and made us more determined. To go in as a No. 3 seed have, to win three games in three days, we were the first team ever to have to do that."
Wahl earned the Big Sky Tournament MVP in addition to a place on the all-tournament team along with Winkfield and Nicky Eason. Entering the NCAA Tournament as a No. 14 seed, Northern Arizona only had to travel a few hours south where it met No. 3 seed Baylor in Tucson, ending its run with a 54-56 loss.
"It's something that even now I talk to my team about here in Division III. It's such a small percentage that get to do that," Kelly said. "You work so hard as a coach because you want so badly for these players that sacrifice their time and their energy, that put so much into the sport they love, to have that opportunity to experience that incredible moment of being in the NCAA Tournament.
"It was one of those moments, I've been coaching for a long time now, that team and that journey that we had that season will always be really special to me," Kelly added.
FULL 2015-16 NAU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL ROSTER
PLAYERS: Kim Biswanger, Rachel Blackman, Kandis Brown, Jessica Burkes, Sade Cunningham, Laura Dinkins, Nicky Eason, Ashley Hardin, Beth Hopper, Janelle Matthews, Natalie Metz, Megan Porter, Jess Starkey, Nicole Tsingine, Sandra Viksryte, Alyssa Wahl, Kim Winkfield.
COACHES: Laurie Kelly, Tony Perotti, Brooke Kelly, Carter Roe.
