GREELEY, Colo. (February 13, 2020) – The Northern Arizona women's basketball team did play their best 10 minutes to start the game, but their last five minutes proved to be the clincher in a gritty 71-60 road victory over Northern Colorado Thursday night. NAU closed the game on a 13-2 run to put away Northern Colorado inside the Bank of Colorado Arena.
The Lumberjacks (13-10 overall, 10-4 Big Sky) posted their third straight victory versus the Bears going back to the regular season finale last March and their first win in Greeley in five years. Furthermore, with the win, NAU secured its first double-digit conference win total in 13 years since the 2006-07 team went 11-5 in Big Sky play.
"We did not start well and to give up 28 points in a quarter is pretty unacceptable defensively," said head coach
Loree Payne. "They were hitting big shots, but we missed some big defensive assignments. But the team turned it around and stayed together and stepped up to the challenge. We won every quarter after that and finished with probably the best five minutes we've played in a long time."
Although the 'Jacks did not shoot the ball particularly well at just 36.5 percent, they came a long way after making just 5-of-22 (22.7 percent) in the first quarter. In the second half, NAU shot 48.1 percent from the field.
Meanwhile, NAU really locked down Northern Colorado after a first quarter in which the Bears made 10-of-17 shots (58.8 percent) in building a 28-16 first period lead. After the opening quarter, Northern Colorado made just 13 field goals the rest of the game and scored 32 total points in the final three periods. The Bears finished the game shooting 15.8 percent in the fourth quarter and 35.4 percent in the game.
While NAU's offense never got in the flow, outside of redshirt junior
Jacey Bailey who shot 8-for-11 overall and made 4-of-5 behind the arc for 24 points, the Lumberjacks were nearly perfect at the free throw line where they shot 17-for-19 (89.5 percent). The 'Jacks also turned the ball over just 10 times and held a season-best plus-nine margin in turnovers on their way to a sizeable 25-7 point advantage off miscues.
"They have some young guards and we were able to mix it up defensive in the second half and disrupt their flow," Payne said. "We had some big turnovers in critical times, but down the stretch we were solid."
The Lumberjacks trailed just 16-14 with four minutes left in the first quarter before the Bears closed with a 12-2 run to take a 28-16 lead into the second period. Northern Colorado proceeded to score on its first two possessions to open up a game-high 32-16 advantage.
The 16-point deficit wound up being NAU's largest overcome in a victory this season as the 'Jacks slowly chopped away at the deficit. Two free throws by senior
Peyton Carroll cut the deficit to 34-24 with four minutes left before half and junior
Lauren Orndoff made it a 38-32 score heading into halftime with the period's final bucket.
Bailey and redshirt junior
Caitlin Malvar hit consecutive threes, evening the game at 38-38, and the Lumberjacks eventually took a three-point lead with a 9-0 run to open the second half. NAU led by as much as four, but it would be Northern Colorado who took a 54-53 advantage into the fourth quarter with a last-second triple.
The lead exchanged hands three times before the teams found themselves knotted up at 58-58 with 5:36 to go. From there, Bailey ignited a 11-0 run with a three-pointer and she scored seven points during NAU's game-clinching surge. Northern Colorado missed eight consecutive shots during the run and went over five minutes without a point as the Lumberjacks ultimately completed their comeback.
Bailey scored 16 of her 24 points – just one shy off her season-high – in the second half as she made six of her seven shots from the floor and all four of her threes. Junior
Khiarica Rasheed also came up big after halftime with nine of her 13 points in the second half. Rasheed also tied for game-high honors with seven rebounds.
Orndoff rounded out NAU's high scorers with 10 points and also tied a career-high with three blocks.
Orndoff was one of four players with three steals – along with redshirt sophomore
Nina Radford, Rasheed and Bailey – as NAU posted a season-high 13 steals in the game.
The Lumberjacks' final stop on their road trip this week will be Saturday at Southern Utah. Tip-off from Cedar City, Utah is 2 p.m.
