FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (February 4, 2021) – When the opportunity arose this season, Northern Arizona head coach
Loree Payne said it was only a matter of time before
Regan Schenck completed her first career triple-double.
Coming off a career-high in points and a perfect shooting performance from the field last Saturday, Schenck indeed completed the milestone in Thursday's 75-51 victory over the Sacramento State Hornets. Finishing the night with 13 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds, Schenck achieved the first triple-double in regulation, and just the second overall, in NAU program history.
"I definitely didn't expect to have that kind of game," said Schenck, whose 12 assists set a career high and marked the first double-digit performance of her career. "I know as a team we are trying to continue off of last game's win. In the second half, I felt like we finally got in the flow. We were hitting shots, and it was a team effort. Everyone contributed in some way."
Schenck's assist total received a boost in the second half, with
Emily Rodabaugh connecting on five three-pointers across the third and fourth quarters and
Jacey Bailey dropping three threes of her own in the last 20 minutes.
Seven of the eight makes came on passes from NAU's junior guard, who also came down with double-digit rebounds for the second consecutive game. Thursday's win, the fifth straight overall as well as in Flagstaff against the Hornets, provided the start of an unusual trend. In the past two games against Sacramento State in Flagstaff, an NAU guard has completed a triple-double after
Caitlin Malvar also did so in last January's double-overtime victory.
Though the second half provided plenty of fireworks on the offensive end for the Lumberjacks, scoring 48 points and hitting 63.3 percent from the field, the first half was anything but the precursor to a triple-double or a 24-point win.
NAU entered halftime with just a 27-24 advantage, and thankful to its senior forward for the boost. Before Schenck, Bailey and Rodabaugh filled up the stat sheet in the second half, it was
Khiarica Rasheed keeping the Lumberjacks afloat early on.
"I thought Khia carried us in the first half," Payne said. "We just looked really out of sync, which is something that we have to clean up."
Shooting 35.5 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes, 15 of NAU's 27 points came from Rasheed. The senior scored six straight for the Lumberjacks midway through the second quarter, twice retaking the lead for NAU in the process.
"We were just off and fortunately for us, Sac wasn't shooting great," Payne said. "I came in at halftime and said we can't expect them to shoot 6 percent from 3 in the second half, which they didn't. But obviously we were able to pick it up on offense."
Sacramento State finished the day 4-of-28 from 3, with a 1-for-17 stretch in the first half. NAU's 10 turnovers helped keep Sacramento State close early on, despite shooting 25.6 percent from the field, as neither side led by more than five points in the first half.
The Hornets only managed to bump their shooting up to 37.9 percent in the second half, though a stretch of eight straight misses in the game's final seven minutes allowed the Lumberjacks to close the night on a 10-0 run.
Rasheed and Rodabaugh's 17 points apiece tied for NAU's team high, with Bailey just behind at 16 points. All 17 of Rodabaugh's came in the second half, with Schenck scoring 12 after the break and Bailey 11. Rasheed added 13 rebounds, with she and Schenck becoming the first pair of Lumberjacks to record double-doubles in the same game since NAU faced the Hornets in Sacramento last January.
As a team, NAU hit 10-of-18 from 3 over the final 20 minutes, with seven dropping during a stretch of nearly seven minutes where the Lumberjacks connected on 11 straight shots from the field.
"You look at our bench in the second half and the energy is just so contagious," Payne said. "We need to figure out how to generate that when we are not hitting every back-to-back threes. That's something that is growth for our team that we really need to focus on over the next four weeks."
The 13 total threes made and 49 rebounds each marked season highs for the Lumberjacks, while the 20 assists as a team just missed matching the year's best of 21 against Eastern Washington in December.
Tiana Johnson led all scorers with 19 points for the Hornets, hitting 8-of-12 from the field, Summer Menke added 12 points as the two connected on 11 of Sacramento State's 21 makes from the field.
NAU and Sacramento State will face off again on Saturday as the teams wrap up the week with a 12 p.m. tipoff in the Rolle Activity Center.
Gallery: (2-4-2021) NAU vs. Sacramento State - 2/4/21
