FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (January 2, 2021) – Down by as much as 17 points late in the second quarter, the Northern Arizona University women's basketball team rallied to draw within one with just two minutes remaining before ultimately falling to the Idaho Vandals.
Closing on a 6-0 run of their own, all coming at the free-throw line, Idaho managed to split the season series following Thursday night's 22-point loss against NAU. The 66-59 victory ended the Lumberjacks' bid for a 3-0 start to the season in Flagstaff and their first ever 4-0 start in Big Sky Conference play.
"Obviously on Thursday we came out and scored pretty much at-will," said NAU head coach
Loree Payne. "I thought we really struggled putting the ball in the basket to start. I thought we had great looks, but we missed about six layups. I think that just the focus wasn't there as much as we needed it to be."
An 8-2 run, with five points from sophomore
Emily Rodabaugh and three by senior
Khiarica Rasheed, nearly brought the Lumberjacks (5-3, 3-1 Big Sky) even with the Vandals (4-4, 3-1) after cutting the deficit to single digits late in the third.
Down 14 at the break, NAU trailed by the same margin through the first six minutes of the second half. A three-pointer by Rasheed triggered a 13-3 run to get within four, as the Preseason Big Sky MVP took over the game for a three-minute stretch.
Scoring all 13 points on the run, Rasheed connected on a pair of threes and hit all three of her free-throw attempts as the Lumberjacks worked to find opportunities for the senior in her third game back from an injury.
"I'm super proud of Khia. We have got to get her more than eight shot attempts though," Payne said. "She's a big-time scorer for us; she had 19 points off of eight shot attempts. That's pretty big time. She was battling on the boards... I know it has been a tough road back, and she is still in limited minutes. She's not fully able to go, so we had to kind of put her in in spurts."
Idaho pushed its advantage back to seven midway through the fourth quarter, with Rodabaugh cutting it to four twice thanks to a pair of three-pointers a minute and a half apart. The latter of the two began the 8-2 run, with Rasheed again finishing a three-point play after finishing a layup through a foul.
Rodabaugh came down with a crucial offensive rebound with less than two minutes remaining, putting back NAU's miss to cut the lead to one. However, the Lumberjacks went scoreless from that point on, missing a pair of shots and committing a pair of turnovers as the Vandals closed out the win.
Rasheed led the Lumberjacks with her 19 points, adding five rebounds and a pair of steals. Rodabaugh finished with 12 points and six rebounds, with senior
Miki'ala Maio adding 11 points.
Four Vandals reached double-digits, led by Gina Marxen's 15 points and Natalie Klinker's 14. Klinker led Idaho with 15 rebounds, four coming on the offensive end as the Vandals outrebounded the Lumberjacks 49-36.
"Obviously Klinker is a dominant rebounder. That kid is all heart, all soul and she is incredibly strong. You have to end up double boxing her out, and we just didn't have that physicality. I thought we got pushed around a little bit, I thought we weren't as tough inside there and we let them have too many easy looks off of rebounds."
NAU continues its run against the Big Sky Conference's best next week as the Lumberjacks face off with the Idaho State Bengals in Pocatello, Idaho. The Bengals, currently 6-1 and 4-0 in conference play, tied with the Vandals for first in the preseason coaches poll while being voted second by the media.
