SEATTLE, Wash. (November 14, 2021) – Erasing a slow start on their offensive end, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks took a two-point lead early on in the second half in the second of their two Pac-12 games to open the 2021-22 season.
However, a run by the Washington Huskies (2-0, 0-0 Pac-12) through the remainder of the third quarter pushed the lead out of reach for the Lumberjacks (0-2, 0-0 Big Sky) Sunday afternoon in Seattle. Holding a 21-point lead in the fourth, the Huskies watched as the Lumberjacks battled back to cut the deficit to five before running out of time as Washington held on for a 72-65 win.
"We had a little bit of a defensive let down in the third quarter. I just felt like our urgency wasn't where it needed to be," said Lumberjacks head coach
Loree Payne. "They hit a couple big shots and we end up finding ourselves down by 20. The fact that they came out and just turned it up in the third quarter, it showed them that's the type of urgency and effort that we need to have throughout the entire game."
Taking their first lead of the game at 25-24 late in the second quarter with back-to-back baskets for
Nyah Moran, the Lumberjacks then scored four points out of the break to go ahead 29-27 with a fastbreak layup by
Khiarica Rasheed.
Washington quickly answered back to even the score at 29-29 as Nancy Mulkey dropped in a layup that started a 19-2 run for the Huskies to take a 46-31 lead with 2:32 remaining in the third. Northern Arizona trimmed the lead back down to 11 on a three-pointer from
Regan Schenck, but Mulkey's jumper as time expired in the third opened another 9-0 run that stretched to the 7:38 mark of the final quarter.
Trailing by 20, and eventually 21 a minute later, the Lumberjacks began their uphill climb through the game's final stretch.
Moran hit a three-pointer to move within 18 before
Teionni McDaniel put up five points in a 14-second stretch thanks to her own steal after putting in a pair of free throws.
A jumper by
Lauren Orndoff extended the run to 7-0, with
Nina Radford scoring seven straight points of her own in the span of less than two minutes. With 1:07 on the clock, the Lumberjacks trailed 66-61 after holding a 63-42 deficit just five minutes earlier.
While the Lumberjacks' comeback ran out of time, with the Huskies hitting four free throws in the game's final minute, Payne said she came away from the weekend impressed with the team's fight.
"I am really proud of the kids. They came up and were not intimidated at all by two solid Pac-12 teams. I thought they battled," Payne said. "We play a little bit better defense in the third quarter and we knock down some shots out of the gate, and it is potentially a different outcome."
Northern Arizona scored just six points in the opening quarter, but forced four turnovers while also drawing even with Washington on the boards.
Down 12-6 after the opening quarter, Northern Arizona drew even just 54 seconds into the second quarter off baskets by Radford, McDaniel and Schenck.
Radford and Rasheed tied with a team-high 15 points, followed by nine for Moran. Schenck led the way on the boards with eight, adding four steals as the Lumberjacks forced 24 turnovers against the Huskies, scoring 22 points off the miscues.
Northern Arizona returns to Flagstaff to prepare for its home opener on Wednesday against the UNLV Lady Rebels (2-0, 0-0 Mountain West). Beating Oral Roberts 85-81 in its season opener, UNLV cruised past Montana State, voted to finish second in the Big Sky, 80-42 on Saturday in Las Vegas.
