FRANKFORT, Ky. (March 21, 2021) – While it may have been a constant struggle to score throughout Sunday's season finale, a timely three-point play and a run of defensive stops sent the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks into the offseason with a win.
Holding the Stetson Hatters (10-15) scoreless for the final 2:32 of the game, the Lumberjacks (15-14) put together four straight stops to preserve a 51-48 victory in the third-place game of the 2021 Women's Basketball Invitational.
"We talked early on in the season that there was going to be games where we don't hit and we have to be able to get stops," said NAU head coach
Loree Payne. "We closed the game out with four stops and in the second half, I think the stat was in 27 possesions we got stops 17 times. We don't win that game if we don't play defense."
Holding the Hatters to 48 points and 30.8 percent shooting from the field, the Lumberjacks set new season-bests in both categories. Additionally, Stetson's 2-of-12 from three-point range ended up as its worst shooting performance of the season.
Stetson never led by more than two points, but did take control of the game with just 2:33 left on the clock. After
Khiarica Rasheed broke the seventh tie of the game with a jumper along the baseline, Jamiya Turner answered right back with a three-point play to take a 48-47 advantage.
However, Turner's free throw to break the eighth and final tie would be Stetson's final point of the game.
Seeking the 13th lead change of what was a back-and-forth affair for much of the day, NAU came away with the basket it needed just 17 seconds later. Taking the ball at the top of the arc,
Olivia Moran drove to her left, drew a foul on Maria Visone and stepped through for a one-handed layup.
Converting the resulting free throw, Moran pushed her final scoring total to 13 points with seven coming in the final 4:14 of the game.
"She had some big buckets and got some really big rebounds," Payne said. "I feel like she has just continued to improve every week. You just see her getting better and better every time we step out to practice. It brings a lot of delight to the future of our program to see how well these young kids started to play more consistently at the end of the season."
Four of Moran's other six points came in the first half as she put back a pair of NAU's misses and helped give the Lumberjacks their largest lead of the game, 14-6. Opening up with 14 points in the first seven minutes of the game, the Lumberjacks scored just 37 more across the final 33.
The first tough stretch came immediately after Moran's shot put the Lumberjacks in front by eight, with the Hatters closing the first quarter on an 8-0 run before taking a 16-14 lead with the first basket of the second quarter.
Jumpers from Rasheed and
Jacey Bailey put the Lumberjacks back in front, setting the stage for a final 24 minutes where neither side led by more than six. Rasheed finished with her third consecutive double-double, scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 rebounds as she landed a spot on the WBI All-Tournament Team.
Apart from Moran, NAU's only other double-digit scorer was
Emily Rodabaugh, whose three-pointer 12 second before halftime sent the Lumberjacks into the break leading 26-24. Rodabaugh wrapped up the game with 11 points, hitting all three of NAU's three-pointers against Stetson.
"It was tough, this is the first time we have played three games in three days and you have to understand the players' legs aren't going to be as fresh as they were on game one," Payne said. "I thought that we got a lot of open looks, we just weren't able to knock them down. Our three-point shooting in game two and game three were a struggle for us a little bit."
Stetson's zone defense held the Lumberjacks to their lowest scoring total of the season while matching their lowest total of field goals made on its second-lowest field-goal percentage, 33.3 percent, of the year.
"We haven't faced a zone much this year, besides Portland State," Payne said. "These last two games are really the first zones we have had to face. We need to do a better job of preparing the team to score against a zone."
With neither side hitting much from the field, NAU took advantage and dominated the rebounding battle. Led by
Regan Schenck's 15 rebounds, the Lumberjacks finished with a 48-35 advantage and beat the Hatters 20-2 on second-chance points.
There were possibly no bigger rebounds than Schenck's final three of the day.
Clinging to a 50-48 lead with under a minute to play, Schenck grabbed a miss forced by Bailey's defense through the lane. Facing another defensive possession with 20 seconds left, Schenck caught a miss that floated over the rim after Rasheed held her ground in the paint.
Schenck hit one of two at the line with four seconds left, with Stetson finding itself in position for one last chance to tie as NAU led 51-48. However, Turner drove into the lane against Schenck on the ensuing possession. NAU's guard then pulled back to allow an uncontested layup before grabbing the miss as time expired.
The free throw was Schenck's only point of the game, but the guard's impact could be felt throughout the day.
"The thing about Regan, and the thing we talk about with the team, is the multidimensional aspect of being a player in our program," Payne said. "Regan tonight, even though she was struggling offensively, I needed her on the floor because she was playing defense and rebounding the heck out of the ball. That's something that we are really challenging our players with. Be multifaceted and give us a reason to need you on the court even if you are struggling in a certain area of the game."
With the win, the Lumberjacks finished above .500 for the second consecutive year, stringing together winning seasons for the first time since recording three straight between 2004-05 and 2006-07.
