FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (January 10, 2019) – In its lone game of the week, the Northern Arizona women's basketball team welcomes Southern Utah to the Walkup Skydome on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Lumberjacks will conclude their three-game homestand before heading out on the road for four straight games over the next two weeks.
"Southern Utah has improved drastically," said head coach Loree Payne. "They have a new coach who has them playing hard. They're very fundamental. They get up and down the floor and they're a lot more disciplined than they have been in the past. For us it's going to be a battle of fundamentals. Defensively, we have to work on our transition defense and offensively, we want to attack and score in transition."
The Lumberjacks split the first two games of their homestand last week and halted their six-game losing streak in the process. NAU, now 5-8 overall and 1-3 in the Big Sky, picked up its first conference win last Thursday, 74-64, against Weber State before the Lumberjacks fell to Idaho State, 80-69, on Saturday.
Similarly, Southern Utah also earned its first Big Sky victory of the season against Weber State last week. After suffering a 69-57 loss to Idaho State last Thursday, the Thunderbirds edged out the Wildcats, 84-79, in overtime on Saturday at home, which snapped their own five-game skid. Southern Utah is 4-9 overall and also 1-3 in league play.
Redshirt sophomore
Jacey Bailey was NAU's leading scorer last week, averaging 17.5 points per game across the two games. Bailey recorded her first career double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds in the win over Weber State and has now scored in double-figures in three straight games. Bailey was not the the Lumberjack to reach double-figure scoring in each of the two games last week as sophomore
Lauren Orndoff and junior
Peyton Carroll have double-digit scoring streaks of their own. Orndoff has scored in double-figures in four straight games, while Carroll has done so in three straight.
Orndoff leads the Lumberjacks in scoring in league play, averaging 15.3 points per game over her last four on 51.2 percent shooting. Orndoff is also shooting 50 percent from three-point range. For the season, Orndoff's scoring average is up to 10.6 points per game, tying her with sophomore
Khiarica Rasheed for second overall on the team. Carroll is averaging 13.3 points over the last three games while shooting 48.5 percent from the field. For the first time in her career, Carroll has scored in double-figures in three consecutive games.
Despite not reaching double-digit scoring for the first two times this season last week, senior
Kaleigh Paplow still leads the Lumberjacks with 14.3 points per game. Paplow sits just 39 points away from a 1,000 for her career and is 10th in the league in scoring. Paplow also leads the team with 7.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. and ranks in the top 10 in of the Big Sky in all three categories.
"We have all the pieces; we just haven't quite put them all together for a solid game yet," Payne said. "But it's exciting to see that they're there. If we can figure out how to put it together, we're going to have a lot of success at the end of Big Sky."
The 'Jacks are averaging 64.8 points per game and allowing 72.2 points per game overall this season. Over the last seven games, NAU is averaging 42.1 rebounds per game and is averaging 15.3 offensive boards per game.
Fans can catch Saturday's game live on NAU-TV and Your Phoenix CW in addition to Pluto TV Channel 239
online and on the free mobile app and
watchbigsky.com.
About Southern Utah:
Record: 4-9, 1-3 Big Sky
2018-19 Preseason Big Sky Coaches/Media Polls: 11th/11th
All-Time Series: WSU, 47-34
Last Meeting: WSU, 77-63 (Feb. 3, 2018)
