RIVERSIDE, Calif. (November 16, 2022) – After 110 points, a pair of overtimes and numerous career highs, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks emerged from more than two hours and 40 minutes of basketball with a dramatic win.
Battling the California Baptist Lancers throughout the night, erasing an 11-point deficit and conceding a 14-point lead, the Lumberjacks left Riverside, Calif. with a 110-104 double overtime victory on Wednesday night. Among the many milestones for the night was head coach
Loree Payne's 200th career victory in her head coaching career.
"I'm just so, so proud of the kids," Payne said. "Having so many players foul out and having our bench have to step up to play big minutes down the stretch in a huge game in double overtime, I think it shows how deep we can be and how good our young kids are. It was just a really special moment because you just saw the team chemistry on the bench. The energy was off the charts."
A 10-0 run by the Lancers midway through the first quarter put the Lumberjacks in a hole, but four points by
Olivia Moran and eight from
Sophie Glancey trimmed the lead back down to two with eight minutes remaining before halftime. After a 6-0 run for California Baptist put the Lumberjack back down 32-24, it was
Nyah Moran's time to take over on her career night.
Hitting a three-pointer off an assist by
Taylor Feldman,
Nyah Moran began a 15-1 run to flip the game going into the break. After Feldman chipped in a layup and
Montana Oltrogge hit a three to cut the deficit to 33-32,
Nyah Moran truly took over.
Connecting on her third three-pointer of the game, matching her single-game career high just 19 minutes into the game,
Nyah Moran then came up with a steal resulting in her own fastbreak layup and made it seven straight points after blowing by her defender off the dribble.
Finishing with a career high 25 points while shooting 9-of-19 from the field and 5-of-11 from three-point range,
Nyah Moran led the way among the Lumberjacks' six different scorers in double figures.
"Ever since we were here over the summer, she was working, and we could see it. She was continually being consistent in her performance," Payne said of Nyah. "She's pretty much been our leading scorer in almost all our practices in the preseason. So, it was really great to see her have that game that solidified everything she has put in during the offseason."
For both Nyah and
Olivia Moran, it was a bit of a homecoming as the two played at King High School, less than 10 miles from California Baptist's campus.
Nyah Moran continued the offensive attack right out of halftime, scoring another four quick points with Glancey adding four of her own to take a 47-38 lead.
From there, it was
Emily Rodabaugh's time to shine on the offensive end as the junior hit a trio of three-pointers in the span of 51 seconds on the court. Adding two more threes early in the fourth quarter to give Northern Arizona it's game-high 75-61 lead, Rodabaugh finished with 22 points while matching a career high of six three-pointers made.
"It was great to see Emily get hot and get to that zone we know she is capable of doing," Payne said. "Especially when they started pressing, I think she got them out of it pretty quickly because she knocked down a few. It was big shots in big moments."
Unfortunately, the Lumberjacks' largest lead of the night came right before the Lancers created a drastic flip in the game's momentum. Hitting just 1-of-11 from the field over more than seven minutes of play, Northern Arizona allowed California Baptist to take a 78-77 lead with 1:33 left thanks to a 17-2 run. After trading scoreless possessions with the game clock dipping under one minute remaining, the Lumberjacks regained the lead 80-78 with just 18 seconds left on the clock.
Isolated on the right side of the court, Rodabaugh backed her way into the post before spinning away from the help defense, drawing a foul and connecting on a layup. Converting the three-point play, Rodabaugh set the Lumberjacks up to head to overtime after the Lancers evened the game with a pair of free throws.
Nearly matching each other shot for shot in the first overtime, Northern Arizona and California Baptist seemed destined for a second overtime until the Lancers' Nae Nae Calhoun converted on her drive to the basket with 2.3 left on the clock.
With just enough time left to get a quick layup, Oltrogge's bullet pass from right in front of Northern Arizona's bench found
Olivia Moran under the basket. A slight tip sent the ball away from the paint, but Moran recovered and laid the ball up with 0.3 left to hit the tying basket as the buzzer sounded.
Finishing with 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting and a perfect 4-of-4 from the free-throw line,
Olivia Moran kept the game alive for another five-minute period.
"She's a gamer and she makes great finishes at the basket," Payne said. "We drew up that play for her to slip, we knew they were going to be switching. It's one we have been practicing for a little bit. Super, super proud of her, just to see her growth from last year to this year, she's going to be a huge part of what we are doing."
Having lost
Regan Schenck,
Fatoumata Jaiteh,
Nyah Moran and
Sophie Glancey by the stretch run of the second overtime, the Lumberjacks found themselves with a core six players wrapping up the game. Among the group was Feldman who, similar to the Moran twins, was playing in front of family after spending her high school career just 30 minutes away at Crean Lutheran.
Hitting a pair of layups early in overtime Feldman twice gave the Lumberjacks the advantage before Rodabaugh hit her sixth and final three-pointer for a 96-94 lead with 3:41 to play. A layup by the Lancers' Grace Schmidt evened the game, but Oltrogge buried a three-pointer right in front of Northern Arizona's bench for the 11th and final lead change.
A free-throw from Feldman made it a four-point game, but the real clincher came 35 seconds later as the freshman drained a three-pointer straight on off the dribble with 1:36 to play. Leading 103-97 after the shot, Northern Arizona's advantage never dipped below three for the rest of the way.
"We talked earlier this week about at any point, anyone can get their chance," Payne said. "We didn't mean to jinx ourselves with that, but I am super proud of our young ones to come in. Saniyah coming in and holding her own in overtime, same with Mary and same with Taylor, that's a young group out there and they shined."
With their 110 points ending up as the second-most in a single game in program history, the Lumberjacks posted four career-highs for points.
In addition to
Nyah Moran's 25 points, Glancey's 16, Feldman's 11 and
Mary McMorris' three all set new highs while Oltrogge's 19 points matched her high as a Lumberjack from the season opener at Arizona State. While many of the freshmen easily set new highs, Oltrogge also set a new high for free throws made in a game and Rodabaugh matched her high of six threes in a game.
Northern Arizona returns home for the weekend to face Park University, Gilbert on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Rolle Activity Center before heading down to the U.S. Virgin Islands for three games scheduled at the Paradise Jam on Monday. Sunday's stream will be available
here with live stats
here.
Make sure to follow the NAU women's basketball team on
Twitter,
Instagram and
Facebook for updates throughout the season.
