FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (December 31, 2020) – Playing for the first time in two weeks,
Regan Schenck,
Emily Rodabaugh and the rest of the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks wasted no time jumping ahead of the Big Sky Conference's preseason favorite.
A 21-point lead after the first quarter led to an 84-62 victory Thursday night against the Idaho Vandals, with the Lumberjacks never trailing as they improved to 3-0 in the Big Sky with their second straight victory at Rolle Activity Center.
"A little bit of a break did us good," said NAU head coach
Loree Payne. "It allowed those players that were getting a lot of minutes early on to get a little bit of rest and recovery. I thought our conditioning was pretty solid tonight, I didn't think that impacted us at all. Obviously we came out on fire."
Shooting 73.7 percent from the field in the first 10 minutes, NAU stunned Idaho from the opening tip. Schenck and Rodabaugh each came away with nine points in the first quarter, while
Khiarica Rasheed's return to the starting lineup included seven points of her own during the opening stretch.
Runs of seven, eight and seven turned an early 9-4 advantage into a 33-12 NAU lead heading into the second quarter. Though Idaho trimmed NAU's lead down to 10 in the third quarter, the Lumberjacks answered with yet another dominant run and came away with their largest victory over the Vandals since January 1996.
Following a three-pointer by Gina Marxen and a layup from Beyonce Bea to cut the lead to 59-49 with two minutes left in the third, the Lumberjacks responded with a 10-point run spurred by freshman
Nyah Moran.
Scoring seven points as the Lumberjacks pushed the lead back to 20,
Nyah Moran hit a pair of layups around a
Jacey Bailey three-pointer before drilling one of her own to open the fourth quarter.
The lead never fell below 18 from there on, with
Nyah Moran finishing her night with a season-best 11 points. Four other Lumberjacks reached double-digits in the victory, with Schenck leading the way at 23, followed by 13 apiece for Rodabaugh and Rasheed while
Miki'ala Maio added 11.
Rodabaugh, who hit a trio of three-pointers in the first quarter, added nine rebounds to lead the Lumberjacks. Maio led the Lumberjacks with a season-high six assists, her third consecutive game with at least five.
After scoring nine to start the game, Schenck added another eight in the fourth quarter and finished the night shooting 9-of-14, including a perfect 3-for-3 from three-point range.
"For us to show the resilience that we have, is something I'm really impressed with," Payne said. "It shows a lot of maturity for this team. Regan stepped up today big time, I truly feel like she is the difference maker for us this year in just leading the team. She's grown so much and matured so much as a player, she completely controlled the tempo of the game."
Meanwhile, NAU held Marxen to just 11 points and Bea to 12 as the Vandals shot just 35.4 percent as a team. Natalie Klinker did return to Idaho's lineup, tying Bea for a team-best 12 points while adding eight rebounds while playing just 18 minutes.
Now 5-2 overall and having handed the Vandals their first Big Sky loss of the season, NAU will face off with Idaho again on Saturday at 12 p.m., with the game available on Pluto TV Channel 1058.
