FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (January 30, 2020) – The Northern Arizona women's basketball team will cross the midway point of conference play on the road at Idaho and Eastern Washington with an opportunity to make a statement. The Lumberjacks will face Idaho, the defending Big Sky regular season champions, on Saturday at 3 p.m. MST before closing the road trip on Monday at Eastern Washington at 7 p.m. MST.
The Lumberjacks (9-9 overall, 6-3 Big Sky) split their road trip last week, bouncing back from a 66-54 loss to Portland State with a resounding 85-65 victory at Sacramento State. Junior
Khiarica Rasheed, redshirt junior
Jacey Bailey and redshirt sophomore
Nina Radford combined for 77 of NAU's 85 points in the win over the Hornets.
"We're playing well right now," said head coach Loree Payne. "We've had a few bumps in the road and we took a little bit a step back against Portland State where we didn't have a great shooting night, but we know what lies ahead. We take one game at a time, and it just so happens that our next game will be a big one for us. We're really focused on what we need to do to come away with a victory to continue the momentum moving forward."
Bailey was named the Big Sky Player of the Week on Tuesday after recording a pair of double-doubles –
her first two of the season – versus the Vikings and Hornets. In the two games, she averaged 20.5 points and 12.5 rebounds.
Rasheed (16.2), Radford (14.2) and Bailey (13.7) all rank in the top eight of the conference in scoring this season. In conference games, the trio are all in the top 10 with Rasheed leading the entire conference with 20.3 points per game following her fourth 20-point game during Big Sky play.
NAU's offense continues to shine, averaging 78.0 points per game in conference play, but the Lumberjacks' defense has been trending up. Over its last five games, NAU has allowed just 62.2 points per game with opponents shooting 36.3 percent from the field.
"Our team is stepping up defensively; we've made a few tweaks in our system to cater to our players' strengths," Payne said. "At the end of the day, they're taking a little more pride in it and we've been focusing on different strategies in practice. We're finally starting to click defensively and figuring out when we can turn up the heat on teams and when we need to just buckle down and get stops in the half court."
Saturday's matchup will be between two of the Big Sky's hottest teams with Idaho owning the Big Sky's longest active winning streak of five games. Meanwhile, NAU has won six of its last seven.
Idaho has won the last five head-to-head meetings, including last season's Big Sky quarterfinal matchup in Boise, Idaho, by an average of 15.4 points. The Lumberjacks' season came to an end with a 90-73 loss to the No. 1 seeded Vandals in the conference tournament despite 24 points, 12 rebounds and six assists by sophomore
Regan Schenck.
Idaho is 12-5 overall and in second place in the Big Sky with a 7-1 record after defeating Southern Utah, 71-56, on Monday. The Vandals are 6-0 at home and have won nine of its last 11 games going back to the start of December.
On Monday, the Lumberjacks will head to Cheney, Wash. – a place the 'Jacks have not won at since Feb. 9, 2013 – to face Eastern Washington. Like Idaho, Eastern Washington has defeated NAU in five consecutive meetings. The Eagles, the conference tournament runner-up last spring, won both matchups last season by a combined seven points.
Although Eastern Washington is just 2-15 overall and 1-7 in conference play, the Eagles did push conference-leading Montana State to double overtime three games ago. The Eagles are coming off a 63-42 loss to Northern Colorado on Monday.
Both games will be streamed on Pluto TV
online and on the Pluto TV app. Saturday's game will be on Channel 542 and Monday's game will be on Channel 534.
About Idaho:
Record: 12-5, 7-1 Big Sky
All-Time Series: UI, 21-9
Last Meeting: UI, 90-73 (March 12, 2019)
About Eastern Washington:
Record: 2-15, 1-7 Big Sky
All-Time Series: EWU, 41-26
Last Meeting: EWU, 81-76 (Feb. 23, 2019)
