FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (January 18, 2020) – The Northern Arizona women's basketball team took care of business before heading out on the road for the next two weeks with a convincing 72-45 victory over Northern Colorado on Saturday in the Walkup Skydome. The Lumberjacks (8-8, 5-2 Big Sky) led by as much as 35 points on their way to extending their win streak out to five games.
NAU's five-game winning streak is the program's longest since the Lumberjacks won five in a row from Jan. 6-19, 2006 during NAU's 2005-06 Big Sky Championship season. The last time NAU won five straight conference games was the 2001-02 season when the 'Jacks posted six consecutive Big Sky games from Feb. 8-March 2, 2002.
"We needed this one; we needed a convincing win," said head coach
Loree Payne. "We've played in a lot of close games and we've figured out how to win those close games, but we needed this. I challenged our starters because we haven't been starting (games) strong in conference and it was becoming a trend and our starters stepped up today."
The Lumberjacks' 27-point victory on Saturday was also their largest in a conference game since they defeated Portland State, 94-46, on Jan. 3, 2015. Northern Colorado's 45 points were the fewest by a Division I opponent since NAU allowed only 35 points to UC Irvine in a victory in 2014. It was also the fewest allowed to a Big Sky opponent since a 79-45 Lumberjack win over Northern Colorado on Jan. 11, 2007.
NAU nearly had all five starters in double-figures with redshirt junior
Jacey Bailey pacing all players with 17 points. Bailey and junior
Khiarica Rasheed both hit three treys as Rasheed finished with 15 points. Junior
Lauren Orndoff scored 11, redshirt junior
Caitlin Malvar scored 10 and redshirt sophomore
Nina Radford chipped in nine.
NAU's starting five outscored the entire Northern Colorado team, 62-45.
The starting five set the tone early with the Lumberjacks racing out to a 19-5 advantage that only grew as the game progressed. Rasheed, Radford and Bailey combined for all 19 points in the run with 12 coming on threes. The 'Jacks led 26-10 at the end of the first quarter with NAU hitting 10-of-16 (62.5 percent) and the rout was on.
Although NAU's offense slowed a bit in the second quarter, the Lumberjacks shut down the Bears on the defensive end. A Bailey three put NAU up 37-12 with 3:10 left in the first half, before Northern Colorado hit a pair of free throws with 2:07 on the clock to finally snap a scoring drought of nearly seven minutes. The Bears would go nearly eight minutes without a field goal before the 'Jacks eventually claimed a 41-18 halftime lead.
Orndoff was a perfect 4-for-4 from the deck in the third quarter, leading another strong offensive quarter by the 'Jacks. NAU made eight of its 12 attempts (66.7 percent) and sophomore
Regan Schenck's steal and layup right before the third quarter buzzer pushed NAU's lead out to 63-34 going into the final 10 minutes.
Malvar hit NAU's ninth and final three-pointer with 6:22 remaining in the game to give the Lumberjacks their largest lead of the season, 72-37, as NAU wound up leading by double-digits for the final 35 minutes of the game.
"Give UNC credit; they're super athletic," Payne said. "They worked incredibly hard despite the score. There was a moment where we got a little content, a little comfortable. But it's one game at a time and we have a tough stretch coming up with four games on the road."
NAU shot 45.6 percent for the game and 40.9 percent behind the arc. Northern Colorado shot only 28.3 percent – the lowest opponent field goal percentage this season – and 31.6 percent from long distance.
The Lumberjacks – led by eight rebounds from Bailey and seven off the bench by redshirt junior
Brianna Lehew – outrebounded Northern Colorado, 46-35.
After starting conference play with five of seven at home, the Lumberjacks will be on the road in back-to-back weeks for four straight beginning next Saturday at Portland State, the defending Big Sky tournament champions.
"It's another test to see how tough we are," Rasheed said. "We can do it at home and we like to defend our home, but it's tougher to do it on the road. It's going to challenge us mentally as a team to see if we can pull things through."
The 'Jacks will have a full week off before taking on Portland State on Saturday, Jan. 25 before continuing on to Sacramento State on Monday, Jan. 27.
