eCHENEY, Wash. (January 24, 2022) – Holding the Eastern Washington Eagles to just 32.8 percent shooting from the field, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks concluded their stretch of three games in five days with a crucial victory as the midway point of Big Sky Conference play approaches.
The defensive effort, boosted by a bounce back shooting performance, pushed the Lumberjacks (8-8, 5-3 Big Sky) to a 69-54 victory Monday night in Cheney, Wash. Holding the Eagles (4-14, 2-7) to 54 points marked a season best for Northern Arizona while the 32.8 percent shooting from the field ended up as the second-lowest total for an opponent this season.
"Our defensive effort was one of the best we have had all season," said Lumberjacks head coach
Loree Payne. "That's back-to-back games that we have played really solid defense. We made some systematic adjustments after Montana State, and I think it really helped us."
While Eastern Washington played Northern Arizona close through the opening 10 minutes, trailing 16-15 after the first quarter, the Lumberjacks offense found its groove in the second.
Eight different Lumberjacks scored in the second quarter, as only
Khiarica Rasheed put in more than two points during the balanced attack. After the senior forward scored off a dribble drive to the basket, she found freshman
Fatoumata Jaiteh open for a layup on a similar drive one possession later.
Rasheed and Jaiteh's layups began a 10-1 run, turning a one-point deficit into an eight-point lead, and became part of an 18-5 run spanning nearly the entire quarter.
Teionni McDaniel found Rasheed and
Emily Rodabaugh open for baskets off of picture-perfect passes before
Regan Schenck pushed the ball ahead to the freshman for a third Northern Arizona layup in less than a minute of play.
Despite Eastern Washington cutting the 14-point lead back down to nine with five quick points to end the half, Northern Arizona's offense continued the onslaught until an extended stoppage in the third quarter.
Three-pointers for
Nina Radford,
Emily Rodabaugh and
Lauren Orndoff in just 1:22 of play put the Lumberjacks ahead 45-27, their largest lead of the night, with 7:50 left in the third quarter.
However, an official review merged with a media timeout left the Lumberjacks cooling off on the bench and the Eagles bounced back with a 9-0 run of their own. Held off the scoreboard for nearly five minutes of play, Northern Arizona snapped a 0-for-4 skid that included four turnovers with a layup by Schenck.
Strong off the dribble throughout the game, Schenck came up with three more crucial baskets in the fourth quarter as the Eagles mounted one last push.
With the Lumberjacks' lead down to 54-48 and 7:00 still left on the clock, Schenck put in layups on back-to-back possessions and Northern Arizona led by double-digits for the remainder of the night.
"I love when she's aggressive, they couldn't stop her off the dribble," Payne said. "She was really just attacking, and she put the team on her back in the fourth quarter. She made some big shots when we needed a score after they had gone on a little bit of a run."
The run pushed Scheck to a team-high 14 points on 7-of-8 shooting while adding seven rebounds and four assists. Orndoff added 13 points with Rasheed just missing a double-double at nine points and nine rebounds.
As nine Lumberjacks scored in the game,
Olivia Moran added 11 off the bench as she hit 5-of-7 from the field and grabbed six rebounds. Northern Arizona outrebounded Eastern Washington 42-29, its second-best margin this season and second-lowest rebound total allowed this season.
Returning home for a few days of practice and rest, the Lumberjacks return to the Pacific Northwest next weekend for a game at the Portland State Vikings before returning home for a pair of weekday home games against the Northern Colorado Bears and the Sacramento State Hornets. The week continues with a one-game road trip to Greeley to face the Bears again, concluding a stretch of four games in eight days.
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