Nakai, Schenck Combine for 50 as NAU Beats Montana 89-76

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (January 16, 2021) – JJ Nakai and Regan Schenck took turns shouldering the offensive load for the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks Saturday morning as the duo combined for 50 points to help snap a four-game skid.

With Nakai putting up 11 in the game's opening quarter, Schenck followed with 10 of her own in the second before the duo nearly matched one another in the third. Then Nakai took control of the fourth, closing out the 89-76 victory with 13 points in the final 10 minutes.

"Super proud of the team, they bounced back and it was a tough stretch," said NAU head coach Loree Payne. "I think our team had an opportunity to step up and bounce back or they could have gone the other way and I am just really proud of their resilience."

After struggling with slow starts over the past few weeks, the Lumberjacks never trailed by more than four throughout the contest. Taking an eight-point lead late in the first quarter, Northern Arizona shot an incredible 85.7 percent across the opening 10 minutes, with Nakai draining a trio of three-pointers.

To their credit, the Lady Griz wrapped up the first quarter hitting 60 percent from the field and trailed 29-23 as Carmen Gfeller hit all three of her shots from the field to start the game while Abby Anderson chipped in five points as well.

Both schools slowed in the second, as they combined for 32 points with the Lumberjacks holding a 44-40 advantage going into the break.

It was Schenck who carried NAU's offense into halftime, scoring 10 of her team's 15 in the second, including a crucial three-pointer off an assist from Nakai. Just 20 seconds later, Jacey Bailey drilled a three of her own as the Lumberjacks flipped a one-point deficit into a five-point advantage.

NAU forced nine Montana turnovers in the first half, leading to 11 points. The totals rose to 17 turnovers and 21 points at the final horn, as the Lumberjacks' press created multiple fastbreak opportunities on the offensive end.

"Our press is pretty dominant in a lot of ways. I know there's a lot of teams that don't want to go up against our press, we just haven't been able to do it because we haven't had the depth," Payne said. "For us to be a pressing team the way we would like to be pressing, we have to have eight or nine deep because it is exhausting. You can see the efficiency of it, so I felt like we were able to do it a little more and the kids pushed through. They were tired at times, but they knew that is what was working."

Forcing four turnovers in the opening two minutes of the second half, NAU immediately pushed out to a 54-40 lead with Schenck putting up six points during the 10-0 run. The Lady Griz trimmed the lead down to four early on in the fourth quarter, but the Lumberjacks pushed it back up to 15 before Montana put in the final basket of the game.

After Gfeller, who led Montana with 21 points, hit a layup to cut the lead to 61-57 at the start of the fourth quarter, Nakai took control as she scored 13 in the final quarter.

Putting in a reverse layup following a perfect pass from Schenck, Nakai then buried a pair of threes off of passes from the junior guard. Nakai finished the game with 29 points and six assists while hitting 6-of-9 from three, all new career-highs, while Schenck added 21 points, eight assists and three rebounds.

"If she runs, I'll take the ball. If she has the ball, I'll run. It's just kind of the way we play, we have the same style and we always want to push the ball," Nakai said of her play alongside Schenck. "I think I just got out of my head a lot today, I just went out there and did my thing. Shot the ball and I was feeling it, so I just kept shooting."

Miki'ala Maio added 12 points for the Lumberjacks while Emily Rodabaugh finished with 10. Bailey led the way on the boards for NAU with six, adding in seven points and five assists. Khiarica Rasheed also chipped in eight points and five rebounds as she came off the bench.

Montana again came within five down the stretch, but six straight points by Rodabaugh, twice off of assists from Bailey, effectively put the game away with just 2:18 left on the clock.

The Lumberjacks moved back to .500 in the Big Sky at 4-4, while improving to 6-6 overall. Montana dropped back to 2-2 in conference and 5-4 overall. The two teams now go their separate ways, with NAU heading to Montana State for a pair of games next week while Montana returns to Missoula for a pair of games against Sacramento State.