FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (April 3, 2019) – Start strong. Finish strong. Basketball is a game of runs. But over the course of 40 minutes, there is always the opportunity to start strong, finish strong.
The Northern Arizona women's basketball team embodied that motto on a nightly basis. As it would play out, that motto would define the Lumberjacks' 2018-19 season as a whole.
"It came down to consistency and with a young team, we anticipated some inconsistencies," said head coach
Loree Payne. "It's a long season and for the young ones like Regan (Schenck), who started a lot of games and played a lot of minutes as a true freshman, to Caitlin (Malvar) and Jacey (Bailey), who both sat out last year, that's three of our main players who went through their first go-around of being a major contributor at a Division I program for six months."
The Lumberjacks started the season strong at 4-1 – the program's best start since their 2005-06 Big Sky Championship season – and finished strong by winning seven of their last 11 games. In between though, NAU went 2-13 over the course of two months bleeding into the midway point of the conference schedule.
Ironically, the turning point in the season came right before NAU endured a six-game losing streak at the front end of its lengthy midseason slump. Redshirt sophomore
Caitlin Malvar's game-winner with 7.4 seconds remaining capped a 63-62 road victory over Loyola Marymount, who had previously beaten two Pac-12 schools who would reach the postseason (UCLA – NCAA Tournament, Arizona – WNIT).
"LMU was a great team and had really good players who outmatched us at every position," Payne said. "That was an established program – a postseason opponent – and we beat them. They didn't play bad. We just came in and outplayed them. That changed our mentality (from hoping to win to expecting to win) and then we went on a little slump."
"Going into conference, we felt like we could play with anyone and then we didn't get off to a great start," Payne added. "They never lost that expectation to win though and it frustrated them even more because they believed that they should be winning these conference games. Had we not gone through that though, I don't think we would've finished as strong. We almost needed that understanding about Big Sky play, especially on the road."
Although NAU went into conference with a 4-5 mark, the Lumberjacks had a confidence not seen from within the program in years. Their four non-conference victories were impressive including three against eventual WNIT teams (Fresno State, California Baptist and Loyola Marymount) and a road win against Seattle, the reigning WAC champions and NCAA Tournament.
Still, the rigorous Big Sky travel got the best of a young Lumberjacks team. NAU struggled out of the gate playing six of its first nine conference games on the road and ultimately starting out just 2-9.
The Lumberjacks' 4-1 start appeared to be a distant memory, but the script suddenly switched. NAU began its push towards March – its push to finish strong – on the first Thursday night in February.
Senior
Kaleigh Paplow and sophomore
Khiarica Rasheed had carried the 'Jacks up until this point and they would receive two huge boosts from redshirt sophomore
Jacey Bailey and freshman
Regan Schenck in an 81-77 victory at Idaho State. Bailey and Schenck each posted 20-point performances as the Lumberjacks defeated the Bengals, who entered that night first in the conference.
NAU's first victory in Pocatello in a decade followed by a win at Weber State to secure the program's first Big Sky road sweep in nearly 14 years sparked a final stretch where the Lumberjacks closed the regular season with a 6-3 mark. The 'Jacks finished the regular season with three straight victories in the Skydome against Montana State, Montana and Northern Colorado.
Each of NAU's last three victories snapped extended losing streaks to its conference rivals with NAU picking up its first wins over Montana since 2012 and both Montana State and Northern Colorado since 2015. The Senior Day victory against the Bears denied Northern Colorado a shot at a share of the conference regular season title.
The Lumberjacks did not stop there as they continued their winning ways in Boise, Idaho. NAU posted its first conference tournament victory in 12 years in thrilling fashion, besting Sacramento State 74-69 in the opening round of the Big Sky Championship. The victory came at a price though as it marked Paplow's last game in the Blue & Gold after the senior captain went down with an injury in the fourth quarter.
The eighth-seeded Lumberjacks proceeded to take on top-seeded Idaho in the Big Sky quarterfinals. Starting four sophomores and a true freshman against the regular season champion, NAU was unfazed although its season came to an end with a 90-73 loss. The loss closed the book on a season filled with highs and lows resulting in a 13-18 overall record.
NAU nearly doubled its win total from Payne's first season (7-23) and also improved its conference record from 4-14 to 8-12.
"We have a more established program now," Payne said. "We've laid the foundation and we're not starting from ground zero and building up. With a solid foundation built, our mind shifts to adding a few players to an already established program instead of finding players to have establish it. We're building something and we're starting to find success and that helps with the whole culture shift."
Playing beyond the conference tournament is the next step for this program on the rise, especially considering that the Lumberjacks registered victories over five WNIT teams this season with the inclusion of Idaho State and Northern Colorado.
"It's super encouraging," Payne said. "We understand that there were six to eight games that we could've won and had we done that, we would've been playing (in March). It's lit a fire in our returners and that's not a far reach for us as a program. Looking back two years, people would've laughed at the thought of NAU women's basketball playing in the postseason. It's a reality and that's what we're chasing."
The program will move forward without Paplow, along with fellow graduating senior
Tate Tsingine, though. Paplow was NAU's lone representative on the all-conference teams, closing out her career with a spot on the All-Big Sky Third Team. She averaged team-highs of 14.1 points and 7.9 rebounds in addition to leading the team in assists and steals all while playing 36.3 minutes per game.
Paplow's presence on the court – she finished her career as the only player ranked in the top 10 in program history in points, rebounds, assists, steals and minutes played – will surely be missed, but what was a young team will not be so youthful next season.
Rasheed, NAU's season-long steady presence alongside Paplow, will be a junior after averaging 12.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game this season. Bailey's five 20-point games only trailed Paplow's six and she tallied the team's only 30-point game (31 versus Montana). She finished with a season average of 11.5 points per game.
Schenck ended her freshman season with a bang, totaling season-highs of 24 points, 12 rebounds and six assists without a turnover in the quarterfinal loss against Idaho. She averaged 13.0 points in her last six games. Malvar – Schenck's backcourt mate – will also return after ranking third in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.8).
The list of returners also includes junior
Peyton Carroll, redshirt sophomore
Brianna Lehew and freshman
Morgan Gary who combined for nearly 1,000 minutes of court time. Not to mention, NAU is expecting the return of sophomore
Lauren Orndoff, who was averaging 10.1 points per game before her season was cut short due to a medical condition, and the debuts of redshirts
Nina Radford and
Molly Rohrer.
With 13 of the 15 players honored on the All-Big Sky First, Second and Third Teams exiting due to graduation across the conference, NAU is in as good of a position as any team to make an ascent up the standings.
"The top or four five teams in the conference lose two or three significant contributors," Payne said. "Losing Kaleigh, that's huge shoes to fill, but we're also adding Nina, Molly, (incoming freshmen) Sanjana (Ramesh) and Emily (Rodabaugh) and if we get Lauren back, that's five players who are big-time impact players for us. The work starts now and we're going to push each other to get better."
Start strong. Finish strong. Preparation for the 2019-20 season starts now. The question is, could next season finish with a Big Sky Championship? For the first time in over a decade, that possibility is as real as ever in Flagstaff.
