BOZEMAN, Mont. (January 20, 2022) – Returning from a 10-day layoff, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks' offense didn't miss a beat Thursday night against the Montana State Bobcats.
However, struggles on the boards and with fouls left the Lumberjacks playing from behind for much of the night. After cutting Montana State's lead down to five early in the third quarter, Northern Arizona trailed by double-digits for much of the fourth quarter and fell 88-73.
"The two things that lost us this game tonight were fouling and rebounding," said Lumberjacks head coach
Loree Payne. "We gave up 23 offensive boards. I think that's just a commitment to toughness and to rebounding. I think that was really the difference in the game."
Northern Arizona outshot Montana State 47.5 percent to 41.4 percent, but the Bobcats (9-8, 4-2 Big Sky) finished with 24 second-chance points while outscoring the Lumberjacks (7-7, 4-2) from the free-throw line 20-7. Finishing with a 47-29 advantage on the boards, Montana State ended up with nine more attempts from the field in addition to the 15 more attempts from the line.
The difference was no clearer than during the final five minutes of the third quarter.
Baskets by
Regan Schenck and
Khiarica Rasheed brought the Lumberjacks within six at 56-50 with 5:34 left in the third quarter. Montana State preceded to score its next eight points from the free-throw line during a two-minute stretch, with the Bobcats called for two fouls to the Lumberjacks eight.
In total, Northern Arizona's eight third-quarter fouls ended up being more than Montana State's seven across the entire game.
"We got in a position where at one point they made eight straight free throws in the third quarter. It's just something that's in our control and we need to figure out how to play without fouling," Payne said. "I didn't think we were being as aggressive to the hoop. Obviously that discrepancy in shooting, they were being super aggressive to the hoop and we were fouling them."
Northern Arizona led early on, with
Emily Rodabaugh hitting a pair of three-pointers in less than a minute with Rasheed adding a pair of free throws to take a 14-10 lead with 5:37 left in the opening quarter.
An 8-0 run by the Bobcats put them in front, with the Lumberjacks temporarily tying the score at 18 and 21 before Montana State took the lead for the remainder of the night.
All five starters for Northern Arizona reached double-digits, led by Rasheed's 16 points and five rebounds. Both Rodabaugh and
Nina Radford added 14 points, hitting 3-of-7 and 4-of-9 from three-point range respectively, while Schenck added 13 points to go along with her team-high six assists.
Northern Arizona continues its road trip on Saturday as it heads to Missoula, Mont. to face the Lady Griz. Montana (11-4, 4-2) defeated Portland State (5-8, 0-5) 93-57 at home Thursday night, winning its second consecutive game after dropping road games against Idaho State and Weber State.
Stay connected with NAU Women's Basketball on
Twitter,
Instagram and
Facebook for updates on the Lumberjacks as they continue the 2021-22 season.
