FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (March 4, 2020) – The Northern Arizona women's basketball team could never get into a rhythm on Wednesday, suffering a 68-63 loss to Portland State in their regular season finale in the Walkup Skydome. The loss was NAU's third straight as the Lumberjacks (15-14, 12-8 Big Sky) will now turn its attention to next week's conference tournament.
"We have to play a lot better than we did the last three games if we're going to go into (Boise) and win," said head coach
Loree Payne. "If we don't make a change, if we don't figure out how to come together, it's going to be one and done. That's the reality of the situation. If everyone gets one percent better, we're going to be a heck of a lot better going into Boise next week."
Despite the loss, the Lumberjacks clinched a first round bye in the tournament by virtue of Southern Utah's loss to Montana State on Wednesday night. NAU will be the tournament's No. 5 seed and will play No. 4 seed Montana at approximately 1:30 p.m. Arizona time in the second quarterfinal game on Tuesday, March 10.
It is the first time that NAU has secured a first round bye in the five-year run of the current tournament format.
Junior
Khiarica Rasheed finished with a team-high 16 points, while redshirt junior
Jacey Bailey and junior
Lauren Orndoff chipped in 14 and 10 points respectively.
The 'Jacks outrebounded the Vikings, 44-35, with Rasheed, Bailey and redshirt sophomore
Nina Radford grabbing eight rebounds apiece. The Lumberjacks also held significant advantages in all specialty categories including 22-8 in the paint and 17-8 off turnovers.
However, Portland State was 10-for-27 behind the arc, making five more threes than NAU. The Lumberjacks were only 5-of-17 from three-point range. Neither team shot the ball particularly well overall with Portland State at a 36.7 percent clip and NAU at 36.1 percent.
NAU scored six of the game's first eight points and led 13-7 midway through the first quarter following an Orndoff trey. But NAU missed its final eight shots of the opening period, while Portland State went on an 8-0 run to take a narrow 15-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Orndoff tied the game at 18-18 two minutes into the second quarter before a game-changing 11-2 Portland State run broke open the game. NAU would go almost six minutes without a field before Rasheed's layup snapped the drought with 2:14 before the half, cutting NAU's deficit to 29-22.
The 'Jacks went into halftime down 32-24, and were unable to close the gap in the third quarter as they trailed 45-37 going into the fourth. There, the Lumberjacks got within three at 47-44 with eight minutes left in the game on a three-pointer by redshirt junior
Brianna Lehew.
Another triple by Rasheed forced a Viking timeout a minute later with Portland State's lead, which got as high as 11, trimmed to 49-48. The NAU momentum was quickly erased though with Portland State coming out of the timeout with a rapid 7-0 run to push its advantage back out to 56-48 at the 5:13 mark.
Redshirt junior
Caitlin Malvar, wo recorded eight points, five rebounds, six assists and four steals, got NAU within three twice in the next two minutes, but the Lumberjack deficit still sat at five before Bailey's jumper got NAU within 63-60 with 24.8 seconds left.
While Bailey was in the act of shooting, Rasheed was also fouled away from the ball, which prompted her to visit the line where she made one of two to get the 'Jacks to 63-61. After Portland State split a pair of free throws on its end, Orndoff knocked down a pair of freebies to slice the deficit to one, 64-63.
Portland State answered with two more free throws on the other end following an NAU foul, and Bailey's shot to potentially make it a one-point game yet again with under 10 seconds left was off the mark. The Vikings sealed up the victory with two final free throws as the Big Sky's top free throw shooting team was 10-for-12 in the fourth quarter and 14-for-17 for the game.
Prior to Wednesday's game, NAU's four seniors –
Peyton Carroll, Lehew,
Molly Rohrer and
Seneca Richards – were honored on Senior night.
The rest of the league will wrap up the regular season on Friday with five games on tap. NAU will be the only team not in action. The complete Big Sky Championship bracket will be finalized on Friday before all 11 teams make their way to Boise, Idaho for the conference tournament.
