Lumberjacks Rally to Extend Home Win Streak, Open Big Sky with a Victory

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (December 2, 2021) – Trailing by as much as 13 in the opening quarter and again by five in the fourth, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks battled back for an 83-79 victory in their Big Sky Conference opener.
 
Northern Arizona (2-3, 1-0 Big Sky) took its first lead briefly in the second thanks to a 6-0 run, but led for just 4:01 of game time against the Weber State Wildcats (2-4, 0-1 Big Sky) Thursday night in Rolle Activity Center. While the Lumberjacks evened up the score twice in the third, they took their third and final lead with just three minutes left on the clock thanks to a three-pointer by Emily Rodabaugh.
 
I think we were a little shell-shocked," said Lumberjacks head coach Loree Payne as the Wildcats took a 10-point lead less than five minutes into the game. "We turned around and we really started to find our own in the second half, but we can't do that in conference play. Especially this year, there's so much parity in the conference. You are going to have every team's best game against you."
 
Following Weber State's opening 12-2 advantage, which grew to a game-high 22-9 lead with 2:14 left in the first quarter, neither side could put together a run of more than six points. Layups by Regan Schenck, Nyah Moran and Miki'ala Maio shrunk the lead to seven just before the opening quarter came to an end, and a layup by Schenck put the Lumberjacks in front for the first time 4:14 before halftime.
 
Weber State's Jadyn Matthews and Northern Arizona's Khiarica Rasheed traded four-point runs with the Lumberjacks leading for roughly 30 seconds of game time before the Wildcats carried a 43-39 lead into the break.
 
Rasheed led the Lumberjacks with 17 points, followed by 13 for Maio and 12 for Rodabaugh. Matthews put up 21 points and added nine rebounds while Daryn Hickok scored a team-high 22 points for the Wildcats.
 
While Weber State shot 60.7 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes, the visitors were held to just 34.3 percent in the second half, primarily due to the fourth quarter.
 
Northern Arizona held Weber State to just 22.2 percent from the field in the final quarter with the Wildcats missing seven consecutive shots across the span of four minutes. The Lumberjacks took advantage and control of the game during the stretch, flipping a five-point deficit into a four-point lead they would hold onto the remainder of the night.
 
"I felt like we showed a little bit of rust... we just kind of had to weather the storm a little bit and fortunately we found ourselves in the second half," Payne said. "At the end of the day, you just have to be ahead when the buzzer goes."
 
Baskets by Rasheed, Rodabaugh and Nina Radford put Northern Arizona ahead 71-70. Rodabaugh's steal and fastbreak layup with five minutes remaining put the Lumberjacks behind by just one and a shot clock violation forced by a block from Rasheed led to Radford's go-ahead basket.
 
While a pair of free throws from Hickok pushed Weber State back ahead 72-71, Rodabaugh's three brought Rolle Activity Center alive, and Radford extended the lead to four with a pair of free throws after the Wildcats missed a pair of baskets on their own offensive end.
 
Hickok briefly gave Weber State life with a three-point play but Sierra Mich'l, who finished with 11 points and four rebounds off the bench, answered with one of her own to regain a four-point advantage and force the Wildcats to foul. 
 
Maio and Schenck connected on the final four free throws as Northern Arizona extended its home win streak to nine straight games, the longest since a program record of 13 straight wins between the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons. 
 
Northern Arizona will look to continue the streak on Saturday as the defending champion Idaho State Bengals (2-5, 1-0 Big Sky) arrive in Flagstaff after a dominant 83-40 road victory over the Portland State Vikings Thursday night. Tip off is scheduled for 2 p.m. in Rolle Activity Center.
 
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