GAME NOTES (PDF)
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (January 15, 2019) – A two-week road stretch consisting of four games through four states for the Northern Arizona women's basketball team begins at Sacramento State on Thursday with a 1 p.m. MST tip-off. The Lumberjacks will continue on to Portland State for a 3 p.m. MST Saturday game this week to complete the week.
"These are two teams who play very different styles," said head coach
Loree Payne. "Sac State is very up-tempo. They'll press and shoot a lot of threes. Portland State slows it down and plays a lot of zone, so it's a tough road trip to prepare for."
Both NAU and Sacramento State currently occupy spots in the lower half of the Big Sky standings following slow starts to conference play. NAU is 5-9 overall and 1-3 in league play, while Sacramento State is 4-8 overall and 0-4 in the Big Sky. Meanwhile, Portland State has enjoyed a successful start to the season with a Big Sky-best 11-2 overall mark. The Vikings are one of four teams with just one loss in conference play, but they at 3-1, they have played two fewer games than Big Sky leading Northern Colorado and Idaho State entering the week.
"We knew we were going to go through some challenges with being such a young team," Payne said. "Two or three 'young' errors are having an impact on the game. If each player is one possession better, we'll start winning a lot of games. It comes down to how quickly our youth can step up and make a little better decisions because one or two better decisions can make a difference."
The Lumberjacks closed out their three-game homestand with an 82-76 overtime loss to Southern Utah last Saturday. The loss was NAU's seventh in its last eight games. Like NAU, Sacramento State and Portland State also played just one game last week. The Hornets dropped their seventh of eight with a 73-43 road loss to Idaho State on Saturday. The Vikings defeated Weber State, 77-59, on the road to pick up their third straight victory.
Senior
Kaleigh Paplow took a huge step towards the 1,000 point club with a season-high 26 points against Southern Utah. After posting her second-highest scoring game of her career, Paplow is just 13 points away from becoming the 17th player in program history to score a 1,000 points. Paplow also needs just three rebounds to move into fourth all-time in program history. She ranks eighth in the Big Sky in scoring with 15.1 points per game for the season and seventh with 7.7 rebounds while also leading the team with 3.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game.
Paplow and sophomore
Khiarica Rasheed notched double-doubles versus Southern Utah with Paplow's being her third of the season and Rasheed her first. Rasheed had her best scoring game since her career-best 24 point output of 24 points against Seattle on Nov. 9, as she registered 17 points versus the Thunderbirds. Rasheed's double-double effort raised her season averages to 11.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, both of which rank second on the team.
Sophomore
Lauren Orndoff and redshirt sophomore
Jacey Bailey are averaging 12.8 and 12.2 points per game respectively in conference play. Both players are shooting over 40 percent from behind the arc in five Big Sky games.
Redshirt sophomore
Caitlin Malvar drained four three-pointers against Southern Utah on Saturday and is now shooting 39.3 percent on the season on threes. Malvar has connected on a team-high 24 three-pointers in addition to leading the team in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.5).
After hitting a lull, NAU's offense is inching closer to getting back to where it was earlier in the season. Over the last four games, the Lumberjacks are averaging 72.2 points per game on nearly 40 percent shooting. Bailey, Paplow, Orndoff and Rasheed, along with junior
Peyton Carroll, are averaging 10 or more points per game during this stretch.
NAU's Saturday game will be a homecoming for four Lumberjacks. Malvar and Rasheed are Portland natives, while Orndoff (Medford) and Carroll (Damascus) also hail from the state of Oregon.
This week's games will be available on Pluto TV Channel 233 (Thursday) and Channel 232 (Saturday)
online and on the free mobile app. Fans can also catch both games on
watchbigsky.com.
About Sacramento State:
Record: 4-8, 0-4 Big Sky
2018-19 Preseason Big Sky Coaches/Media Polls: Ninth/Ninth
All-Time Series: NAU, 31-15
Last Meeting: NAU, 95-90 (Feb. 22, 2018)
About Portland State:
Record: 11-2, 3-1 Big Sky
2018-19 Preseason Big Sky Coaches/Media Polls: Second/Second
All-Time Series: PSU, 24-23
Last Meeting: PSU, 77-61 (March 5, 2018)
