FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (February 20, 2020) – The Northern Arizona women's basketball battled through lengthy scoring droughts, overcame a five-point deficit with under a minute left and prevailed after two overtimes for a 70-67 victory over Idaho on Thursday in the Walkup Skydome.
NAU (14-11, 11-5 Big Sky) jumped Idaho for second-place in the Big Sky standings, and also secured the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Vandals by virtue of the season sweep. The 11 Big Sky victories are also tied for the second-most in a season in program history.
Junior
Khiarica Rasheed recorded her fifth double-double of the season with team-highs of 21 points and 11 rebounds, while redshirt junior
Jacey Bailey and junior
Lauren Orndoff also reached double-digits with 19 and 16 points respectively.
Although the Lumberjacks only shot 38.5 percent from the field, and endured scoring droughts of 7:45 and 6:39, their defense was stout with the Vandals only shooting 32.0 percent. Idaho, one of the league's top three-point shooting teams in terms of makes at over eight per game, was only 5-for-23 behind the arc.
"Any time after a loss, you're the most focused," said head coach
Loree Payne. "Our team has done a really good job of letting go and moving past (losses). Defensively, I'm so proud of them. For us to only score five points in quarter, but to hold them to 11 was critical. It was one of our best defensive efforts all year."
Coming off an 18-point loss at Southern Utah on Saturday, NAU refocused and never wavered despite its offensive struggles throughout stretches in the game against the conference's top defensive team.
"We had to fight," said Bailey, whose three-pointer with 5.3 seconds left in regulation sent the game into overtime. "We all did what we had to do. It was key that we were cool, focused and relaxed."
Bailey led the Lumberjacks' hot start with seven first quarter points, spurring NAU to a 22-13 lead at the end of the first quarter. Her three-pointer put the 'Jacks in front, 27-16, with 6:27 remaining the first half, but the Lumberjacks would miss their final nine shots from the field and go scoreless following Bailey's trey going into the locker room.
Fortunately, Idaho was equally cold with the Vandals missing eight straight shot attempts at one point in the quarter. Despite its lowest scoring quarter of the season of five points, NAU still managed to take a 27-24 halftime lead with Idaho unable to take full advantage of NAU's drought.
After finally breaking the drought a little more than a minute into the second half, NAU went on a 6-0 run to open up a 37-30 lead. However, Idaho kept it close and went into the fourth quarter trailing just 45-42.
Rasheed knocked down a three with 7:21 left in regulation, providing the Lumberjacks with a 48-44 advantage before an NAU scoring drought of more than six minutes in which the Lumberjacks missed seven consecutive shots. During this stretch, Idaho went on a 9-0 run to hold a 53-48 lead with under three minutes to play.
Redshirt junior
Caitlin Malvar snapped the drought with a bucket with 42.7 seconds left, which pulled NAU within 53-50. Bailey followed with a layup off an inbounds play to cut the deficit to one with 20.5 seconds remaining. After a pair of Vandal free throws, Bailey drilled the game-tying three with a hand in her face with 5.3 seconds on the clock, sending the game into overtime.
In the first overtime, Orndoff snapped a late 61-61 tie with a pair of free throws, only for Idaho to tie the score again with 31.1 seconds remaining. Orndoff's potential game-winner as the horn sounded was off the mark, propelling the teams into a second extra five-minute period.
There, Malvar tied the game at 65-65 and Rasheed nailed a three with 2:04 remaining to put the 'Jacks ahead for good at 68-65. Rasheed, who was 9-for-10 at the line, made her final two attempts to put NAU in front, 70-67, with a minute to play. The Vandals had three attempts in the last 60 seconds, but they could not find the game-tying basket with the Lumberjacks forging a final defensive stand.
"This team put their heart and soul into this game for 50 minutes," Payne said. "The elevation helped us a little. We were exhausted, they were exhausted and it was a battle of grit at the end. The thing this team has learned is to just go hard and they did. I'm super proud of them."
After being outrebounded by 22 last week in two games, NAU battled Idaho on the boards and held the slim edge, 47-46. NAU also totaled 14 assists to just nine by Idaho.
The Lumberjacks will host Eastern Washington on Saturday at 2 p.m. in their Pride and Inclusion game. The game will be televised locally on NAU-TV.
