| Northern Arizona at Idaho State |
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (January 5, 2020) – After splitting their first series with a Big Sky Conference favorite, the Northern Arizona University women's basketball team receives another opportunity as it heads north.
Facing the Idaho State Bengals for a pair of games this Thursday and Saturday in Pocatello, Idaho, with both available on Pluto TV Channel 1061, the Lumberjacks (5-3, 3-1 Big Sky) will hope to return to Flagstaff atop the Big Sky standings. Entering the week at 6-1 overall and 4-0 in the conference, Idaho State is the lone undefeated Big Sky program among the nine to have played a league game this season.
With sweeps of the Northern Colorado Bears in mid-December and the Weber State Wildcats this past week, the Bengals have proven worthy of their place near the top of the Big Sky's preseason polls. Voted second by the media, Idaho State also tied in-state rival Idaho for first in the coaches poll, landing just ahead of NAU in each vote.
Allowing just 57.9 points per game this season, five points ahead of the next closest team, Idaho State leads the Big Sky in scoring defense. That's been a common occurrence for head coach Seton Sobolewski's teams, as the Bengals have ranked first or second in points allowed for the past four years.
"Idaho State is a really good team, offensively and defensively, " said NAU head coach
Loree Payne. "Right now they are undefeated in conference, so for us we have to go in and have an intentional mindset to score, especially in transition. I feel like we got away from that a little bit this weekend against Idaho. I didn't feel like we scored as well as we could in transition. That's a big focus for us, but also understanding time, score and really executing and making sure we are getting good, high-percentage shots."
After putting up 84 points on Thursday against the Vandals, their third time surpassing 80 points this season, the Lumberjacks slipped to just 59 on Saturday, the second-lowest output of the year.
Six Lumberjacks are currently averaging double-figures this season, with seven total players recording double-digit games this season. Senior
Khiarica Rasheed and freshman
Nyah Moran joined the list this past weekend, as the former returned to the starting lineup and the latter filling in as Rasheed remained on a minutes limit.
Rasheed averaged 16.0 points per game while playing just 17.0 minutes per game, hitting 12-of-17 shots against Idaho. Moran's first career double-digit game came in Thursday's victory, as she scored 11 points in 13 minutes off the bench.
Senior
JJ Nakai still sits at 18.5 points per game after missing the weekend against Idaho, while sophomore
Emily Rodabaugh (13.9),
Jacey Bailey (12.5),
Miki'ala Maio (10.9) and
Regan Schenck (10.1) all average at least 10 points per game.
Schenck's 7.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists still paces NAU's roster as the junior guard continued her impressive season with a 23 points against Idaho on Thursday. Similarly, Rodabaugh's breakout season has included one of the nation's top three-point percentages at 53.6 percent and at least two three-pointers made in the past four contests.
Idaho State counters with four dynamic scorers of its own, three with past All-Big Sky honors on their resume. Senior Dora Goles and junior Callie Bourne earned All-Big Sky second team honors following the 2019-20 season, with Goles named to the preseason All-Big Sky team in November. Goles enters the week at a team-high 12.6 points per game while shooting 50.7 percent from the field. Bourne leads the team in rebounding at 9.7 per game, adding 8.1 points and 3.3 assists per game.
Estefania Ors also returns for Idaho State after missing much of the 2019-20 season, including both meetings with NAU. An All-Big Sky honoree on multiple occasions in her career, Ors is averaging 10.1 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.7 assists while hitting 48.5 percent from three-point range.
Second on the team in scoring, sophomore Diaba Konate averages 12.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists and scored a career-high 32 points in Flagstaff a year ago. Konate leads Idaho State in minutes per game at 30.1, with 11 players playing in all seven games this season and eight of those 11 playing at least 12.7 minutes per game.
"We are really talking about communication on defense," Payne said. "We have to be able to communicate. They do a lot of screening action, they do a lot of offensive actions that are difficult to guard so for us, it is just being dialed in, focused and really executing the gameplan defensively."
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