FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (January 21, 2021) – Committing seven turnovers in the game's opening six minutes, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks quickly put themselves in a hole they could never climb out of Thursday night in Bozeman, Mont.
While an 11-0 run across a four-minute stretch brought the Lumberjacks within three, the Montana State Bobcats pushed back for a 13-point advantage at the break before putting the game away with an 11-2 run to close out the third.
With the 79-56 victory, Montana State improved to 6-5, 3-2 in the Big Sky, while NAU slipped to 6-7 overall and 4-5 in the conference.
"I felt like we didn't really have a lot of flow early on," said NAU head coach
Loree Payne. "We just didn't play well tonight and we are going to have games like this on the road. We shouldn't have 22 turnovers against a team that isn't a pressure defensive team."
Regan Schenck scored the first point of the game with a free throw before Montana State put up 13 straight points across a six-minute stretch.
Khiarica Rasheed put in a free throw of her own to halt the run, but NAU did not connect on its first field goal of the game until
Miki'ala Maio's jumper with 3:13 left in the first.
Olivia Moran drilled a three a minute later before
Emily Rodabaugh closed out the opening quarter with three points. The momentum carried over into the second quarter, with the Lumberjacks feeding Rasheed inside where she drew a pair of fouls and cut the deficit to 16-13 on three free throws.
However, the Bobcats answered with nine straight and retook a double-digit lead at 25-12 midway through the second.
Trading baskets across the final 5:26 of the second, NAU and Montana State entered the break with a similar score of 35-22.
During the first half, Schenck picked up her third foul just 2:40 into the second and played just five of the game's first 20 minutes. Finishing with nine points, four assists and four steals, Schenck hit a pair of baskets on back-to-back possessions, but the Bobcats continued to answer on their own offensive end.
"It was absolutely detrimental to have her with three fouls and it's a kid who doesn't generally pick up that many fouls," Payne said. "It was a little frustrating on that part, to just have her not be able to get into the flow that we need her to offensively."
Nyah Moran, who finished the night with a career-best 15 points, drilled a three-pointer at the 4:17 mark of the third to bring NAU within 11 at 45-34, but the Lumberjacks would never come closer the rest of the night.
"We had to go to our bench early, and Nyah came in and did some really good things," Payne said. "But it's just challenging when you get taken out of it a little bit early with your rotation."
Tori Martell led the Bobcats with 16 points, as she connected on 6-of-9 from the field while the Lumberjacks tried to run the shooter off the three-point line. Martell came away with just two threes on the night, but Ava Ranson finished with 12 points thanks to her 4-of-5 shooting from the three-point line.
Darian White, the reigning Big Sky Freshman of the Year, finished with 15 points, five assists and three steals for the Bobcats, including answering back on both of Schenck's third-quarter baskets.
The teams will face off once again on Saturday at 12 p.m. in Bozeman as they close out their two-game season series.
