FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (December 16, 2021) – A tough non-conference schedule for the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks only gets tougher this week as the No. 4/8 Arizona Wildcats arrive in Flagstaff for the first of four visits to Flagstaff over the next decade.
Initially announced in February and finalized in June, an eight-game series between the Wildcats and Lumberjacks (5-4, 2-0 Big Sky) was added on to a pair of previously scheduled games. Arizona will take on Northern Arizona in Flagstaff three times between the 2024-25 and 2030-21 seasons, as well as Friday's 4 p.m. tipoff in the Walkup Skydome.
The game will be available to stream on
ESPN+ and
Hulu with a subscription to the Disney Bundle, with Friday being the first game in the Skydome for the Lumberjacks since March 4, 2020.
Currently 9-0 this season after reaching the NCAA Championship game in April, the Wildcats resume includes a victory over No. 4/6 Louisville, ranked No. 6 at the time of the game, on a neutral court in South Dakota. With an average margin of victory at 24.0 points per game in their nine wins, the Wildcats rank ninth in the NCAA and have just two games finishing with a single-digit lead. The 61-59 victory against Louisville was followed by a 48-46 victory over Vanderbuilt during the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands two weeks later.
With the departure of Aari McDonald to the WNBA, Cate Reese has led the Wildcats in scoring this season with 13.7 points while shooting 45.5% from the field. A 6-2 forward in her fourth year with the program, Reese was named as an All-Pac-12 player the past two seasons after earning a place on the All-Pac 12 Freshman Team in 2018-19.
Reese also leads the team in rebounding at 6.1 per game, with 6-5 sophomore Lauren Ware the team leader in blocks at 2.1 per game in addition to her 7.3 points and 4.8 rebounds.
The lone Wildcat remaining on the roster that played in Flagstaff during the 2017-18 season is Sam Thomas, who leads Arizona with 26.2 minutes played per game this season. Hitting 50 percent from the field, 45.7 percent from outside and 87.5 percent from the free-throw line, Thomas is behind only Reese with 8.6 points per game.
A freshman at the time, Thomas tied for the team high with 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Lumberjacks stunned the Wildcats 84-66 in Flagstaff on Dec. 7, 2017.
Two current Lumberjacks took part in the win, as
Khiarica Rasheed and
Lauren Orndoff were just seven games into their respective careers in Flagstaff. Rasheed, who will set a new program record at 124 career games played when she takes the court on Friday against Arizona, scored six points and grabbed five rebounds in the win. Orndoff finished 7-of-11 from the field, scoring 16 points to trail only current Lumberjack assistant coach
Olivia Lucero in the win.
While Northern Arizona may not rank atop the nation's Top 25, it's high-scoring offense has a few members of the team generating some eye-popping numbers.
As a team, the Lumberjacks sit fifth in the nation at 48.2 percent from the field and are also seventh in the nation at 40.4 percent from three-point range. That's led to 17.9 assists per game, 18th in the NCAA, and the best scoring offense in the Big Sky at 77.6 points.
Rasheed's 56.2 percent from the field ranks atop the Lumberjacks and 36th nationally, though
Nina Radford's 53.7 percent from the field includes a 53.8 percent result from behind the arc. Sitting eighth in the nation from outside, Radford has made 21 three-pointers this season with nine coming off passes from
Regan Schenck.
Schenck's 6.6 assists per game is fourth in the NCAA, and has pushed her into the top five of Northern Arizona's all-time list. Now just 21 back of Brittani Lusain's 370, Schenck is on pace to move into the top four on New Year's Day and into second place by the end of the season.
Following the game against the Wildcats, the Lumberjacks will wrap up non-conference with a trip to San Diego to face the UC San Diego Tritons (3-5), who narrowly missed a victory against California Baptist on Tuesday, falling 74-73, and host San Diego State Friday before taking on Northern Arizona on Tuesday, Dec. 21 at 5 p.m. MT.
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