FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (January 23, 2021) – Another tough first half on the offensive end left the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks playing catch up again in Bozeman, but it was the Montana State Bobcats' offense causing the most trouble Saturday afternoon.
After NAU entered halftime trailing by nine, a decisive 12-2 run by Montana State led to a 21-point advantage in the third en route to the 90-65 victory. The Bobcats improved to 7-5 overall and 4-2 in the Big Sky with their second straight victory while the Lumberjacks fell to 6-8, 4-6 in the conference. NAU now looks ahead to next week's first home-and-road slate of the season against the Northern Colorado Bears.
"We definitely can't give up 90 points," said NAU head coach
Loree Payne. "I feel like right now our team is playing very individually, offensively and defensively. That's something we really need to take a look at and figure out how to be a little bit better as a team on the court."
The Lumberjacks once again opened the game's scoring as
Miki'ala Maio hit a jumper to strike first, but the Bobcats answered with a 7-0 run to take a lead they would carry on for the rest of the afternoon.
Facing an 18-7 deficit after the first quarter, NAU put together an 8-0 run to open the second as
Jacey Bailey and
JJ Nakai connected on threes before
Khiarica Rasheed added a layup inside the paint. The three-point deficit would be as close as NAU could come, after Montana State's Leia Beattie put the Bobcats up 39-30 with a three-pointer going into the break.
Gabby Mocchi and Rasheed traded baskets to open the third quarter, but the Bobcats put together a 12-2 run spanning more than four minutes. Taking a 56-35 lead midway through the third, the Bobcats held on for the remainder of the day with the Lumberjacks only cutting it to 76-59 with 5:57 left in the fourth quarter.
Rasheed's 17 points moved her into fifth on NAU's all-time scoring list past former teammate
Kaleigh Paplow. The senior now sits at 1,206 points, 11 away from moving past Mindy Sherred for fourth on the all-time list.
Controlling much of the second quarter on NAU's offensive end, Rasheed put up 13 points across the 10-minute stretch as the Lumberjacks kept the deficit at single digits. The senior forward scored seven straight for the Lumberjacks in the final 2:27 before halftime, cutting the Bobcats' lead down to six before Beattie hit her three-pointer.
"She had a heck of a game today," Payne said of Rasheed. "She came in and had a double-double, and I thought really gave us solid, solid minutes offensively and defensively."
Adding in 11 rebounds, Rasheed led the Lumberjacks in both categories, with Maio and
Nyah Moran adding in 15 points apiece.
JJ Nakai also finished in double-digits with 11, but the Lumberjacks shot just 40.6 percent as a team compared to the Bobcats' 50.8 percent.
"We had wide open shots today and just didn't knock them down," Payne said. "If you're going to beat teams in the conference and win championships, you've got to knock down wide open shots. We created a situation where we got open shots, we made a few tweaks in our offense and we got the looks we wanted. Now people need to step up and knock them down."
Lexi Deden led Montana State 22 points off the bench, with Beattie and Tori Martell each adding 14 points.
Returning home for a few days, NAU will then venture back out on the road as it faces Northern Colorado on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Both teams will then head to Flagstaff for Saturday's 12 p.m. tipoff to wrap up the week's two-game series.
