FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (November 20, 2022) – For the first time in school history, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks reached 100 points in a game a second time in a single season.
More impressively, the 2022-23 Lumberjacks did so in a second consecutive game.
Coming off a dramatic double overtime victory on the road at California Baptist earlier in the week, Northern Arizona wrapped up its preparation for the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands with a 111-44 win against the Park University, Gilbert Buccaneers Sunday afternoon in Rolle Activity Center. Seven of Northern Arizona's 10 active players reached double-digits, while all 10 scored in the victory.
"This was a great team win for our team," said Lumberjacks head coach
Loree Payne. "We specifically scheduled this game coming back from a road trip and wanting to get a home game before we head out to the Paradise Jam. I thought it was a really great game for everyone to get a lot of minutes, obviously you see that in the stat sheet. We were able to put everyone through on our roster and get some really valuable experience that I think will carry over into this coming week."
Five Lumberjacks set new career highs, including all four true freshmen who entered the game.
Audrey Taylor finished with 18 points to lead the Lumberjacks, followed by her high school teammate
Sophie Glancey with 17.
Taylor Feldman added 15 points, topping the 11 she finished with against California Baptist, while
Mary McMorris reached double figures for the first time in her young career with 10.
Joining the freshmen group with a career day, junior
Sanjana Ramesh recorded her first career double-double at 10 points and 11 rebounds in addition to a trio of steals.
"Sanjana has been here for four years and she's an incredibly hard worker," Payne said. "The team absolutely adores her and it is just really exciting to see her be able to go out, have some success and be cheered on. She's one of the best bench players we have, she's always yelling and cheering for her teammates, so for us to be able to reciprocate that with a lot of our kids is just a great thing to see."
Nyah Moran's 11 points and
Montana Oltrogge's 13 rounded out the double-digit scorers, with
Olivia Moran scoring nine,
Emily Rodabaugh finishing at five and
Regan Schenck adding three.
"Obviously Sophie already moved into the starting spot at the five and a lot of our freshmen are ready to be able to play at the elite level we are expecting them to be at," Payne said. "We knew it was a very talented freshman class, so having a game like this where they can get in and play a little bit looser in a way... it gave a lot of our young kids great experience today."
The Lumberjacks jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the game's first two minutes, as Rodabaugh and
Nyah Moran connected on back-to-back three pointers 22 seconds apart. Leading 24-11 after the first quarter, Northern Arizona opened the second with a 7-0 run that ballooned to 19-4 past the midway point of the quarter.
Northern Arizona finished the game hitting 57.7 percent from the field while holding a 46-21 advantage on the boards. Forcing 34 turnovers, the Lumberjacks recorded 23 steals in the game, the second-most in school history behind the record of 29 set against Denver in 1986.
Connecting on 45-of-78 shots from the field, the Lumberjacks surpassed their school record of 43 set just last season against Grand Canyon. Leading by as much as 70 in the fourth quarter, the Lumberjacks threatened their program record of 72 points for the largest margin of victory set against Sacramento State in 2002. The 111 points scored surpassed Wednesday's 110 against California Baptist for the second-most in school history and now stands as the most in a regulation game. The final score also became the eighth 100-point game in school history, as well as the fourth since 2020.
The Lumberjacks will now head across the country for their stay in St. Thomas of the U.S. Virgin Islands, as they prepare to take on Arkansas, Kansas State and Clemson on Thursday, Friday and Saturday respectively. All three games can be streamed online via ESPN.com.
