CHENEY, Wash. (February 3, 2020) – The Northern Arizona women's basketball team needed a strong fourth quarter to finally put away Eastern Washington, but the Lumberjacks ultimately came away with their first victory in Cheney since 2013, 70-62, on Monday night. The Lumberjacks (11-9, 8-3 Big Sky) had four starters in double-figures led by 16 points apiece from junior
Khiarica Rasheed and redshirt sophomore
Nina Radford.
"We talked as a team about the emotional letdown after a big win and unfortunately we did," said head coach
Loree Payne. "We started a little slow and we were back on our heels a little. We challenged them to play the way we're capable of and we didn't really get into a groove until the second quarter. We had a much better second half and Eastern Washington is a heck of a lot better than a two-win team."
With the win, NAU snapped a five-game losing streak to Eastern Washington over the last three seasons. The Lumberjacks also posted their first road win at Reese Court since Feb. 9, 2013 and just their second on the Eagles' home floor going back to the 2007-08 season.
NAU also swept the road trip to Eastern Washington and Idaho for just the second time in program history. The only other occurrence was Feb. 22 and 24, 1996.
The Lumberjacks recovered from a slow start, which spotted the Eagles a 13-8 lead at the end of the first quarter, to shoot 45 percent for the game. Eastern Washington only shot 39.1 percent. NAU also was nearly perfect at the charity stripe, knocking down 11-of-13 attempts to just 3-for-5 for Eastern Washington.
The 'Jacks made just one of their first 11 attempts from the field, yet they only trailed 6-2 through the first six minutes. The Eagles held their largest lead, 13-4, late in the first quarter until Radford put in a couple of buckets to cut the Lumberjacks' deficit to five going into the second period.
Radford's two field goals at the end of the first quarter started a 14-3 run where NAU made six consecutive shots to take an 18-16 lead a little more than two minutes into the second quarter. During the run, junior
Lauren Orndoff scored eight consecutive Lumberjack points.
Eastern Washington immediately responded with a 10-0 run to move back in front, 26-18, before the pendulum swung back in NAU's favor. Senior
Peyton Carroll was at the forefront of the Lumberjacks' movement with six of her eight points in the second quarter as NAU erased Eastern Washington's eight-point lead to take a 34-33 halftime edge.
After making 11-of-15 shots from the deck in the second quarter, NAU's offense continue to pick up steam in the third quarter as redshirt junior
Jacey Bailey took the scoring torch and scored eight of her 10 points. The Lumberjacks opened the second half with a 9-0 run, pushing their lead out to 43-33 just three minutes into the third.
NAU led by as much as 11, 50-39, and had all the momentum until Eastern Washington turned the tables with a quarter-ending 14-3 run to tie the score at 53-53.
The Eagles led narrowly, 58-56, with 5:51 remaining in the game, but proceeded to go on a scoring drought of nearly five and a half minutes. Rasheed accounted for nine points during NAU's game-clinching 13-0 run, including four consecutive field goals at one point. By the time, Eastern Washington's drought came to an end, the Lumberjacks' lead had grown to 11 with under a minute to play.
"This upcoming stretch of games will be about resilience and mental and physical toughness," Payne said. "We're traveling all day tomorrow and we'll face a really physical Idaho State team on Thursday. They stepped up and did what we needed to do to win this game."
Behind Rasheed and Radford's 16 points each, Orndoff scored 14 points and Bailey added 10. Carroll came off the bench to chip in eight points.
NAU had exceptional ball movement with 23 assists on 27 field goal makes with redshirt junior
Caitlin Malvar tallying seven assists. Radford recorded six assists and Orndoff recorded a season-high four helpers.
The Lumberjacks also used a big second half on the glass (20-14) to outrebound the Eagles, 38-35, for the evening. Rasheed led the team with nine boards, coming up one rebound shy of her fourth double-double of the season.
NAU's quick turnaround this week starts Thursday in the Walkup Skydome versus Idaho State at 6:30 p.m. It will be NAU's first home game since Jan. 18.
