St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (November 25, 2022) – While the competition at the Paradise Jam's Reef Tournament picked up on Friday, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks didn't shy away.
Leading by as much as seven points in the first quarter, Northern Arizona kept the pressure on the No. 25 Kansas State Wildcats at the UVI Sports & Fitness Center in St. Thomas. Still holding a lead 17 minutes into the game, the Lumberjacks ultimately fell 93-80 to the Wildcats who closed out the game with a nine-point advantage in the second half.
Northern Arizona's early advantage came after falling behind 10-5 in the game's opening six minutes. After
Emily Rodabaugh connected on a three-pointer to trim the deficit down to two, the junior tied the game with a layup in the paint on a fastbreak a minute later. Drawing a foul on the play, Rodabaugh converted the three-point play to retake a 13-12 lead.
A pair of technical fouls sent
Regan Schenck to the free-throw line where she converted all four of her free throw attempts, followed by another driving layup for Rodabaugh to put the Lumberjacks ahead 19-12. Ending the first quarter with a four-point lead, Northern Arizona continued to stay in front after
Olivia Moran and
Regan Schenck put in three pointers.
The sides traded the lead soon after, with Kansas State taking the lead for the first time in roughly nine minutes and Northern Arizona answered back with baskets by
Saniyah Neverson and
Olivia Moran.
Like Thursday night's loss to Arkansas, Northern Arizona shot well from the field, finishing at 47.5 percent from the field and 40 percent from three-point range, but struggled with turnovers and fouls.
Kansas State finished 28-of-39 from the free-throw line, beating out Northern Arizona by 24 attempts and 16 makes. Foul trouble for a handful of Lumberjacks, including starters
Regan Schenck,
Montana Oltrogge,
Sophie Glancey and
Nyah Moran. Both Schenck and
Nyah Moran ultimately fouled out of the game while Glancey and Oltrogge finished with four fouls apiece, as did
Olivia Moran.
With Kansas State leading 40-33 with under a minute to play before halftime, Rodabaugh's three-pointer sent Northern Arizona to the locker room down by just four. Rodabaugh finished with 13 points, as did Glancey and Oltorgge, with all five starters finishing in double-digits. Schenck and
Nyah Moran tied for the team high at 15 points, with both players hitting multiple three-pointers.
Schenck is now just 26 points away from 1,000 in her Lumberjack career while Rodabaugh moved into 10th all-time with 115 career three-pointers made.
Nyah Moran finished 3-of-8 from outside, followed by 2-of-4 by Schenck, 2-of-5 from Oltrogge and 2-of-7 from Rodabaugh. The Lumberjacks have now hit 10 or more threes in four of their past five games, with the four games already standing as the most with 10 or more threes made since the 2020-21 season included seven.
The Lumberjacks spent much of the third quarter trailing by around six to eight points, with a three-pointer by
Nyah Moran and a layup from Glancey briefly making it a five-point game. However, a 9-2 Kansas State run across a two-minute stretch late in the third added some cushion for the Wildcats to lean on down the stretch.
Building up a game-high 15-point lead with 7:46 left on the clock, Kansas State avoided a late push from Northern Arizona in the game's waning moments.
Northern Arizona will conclude its three-game stay at the Paradise Jam on Saturday at 3:45 p.m. MST against the Clemson Tigers. Clemson opened the Reef Tournament with a 76-38 loss to Kansas State before facing Arkansas Friday night. The game can be streamed
here while live stats are available
here.
Make sure to follow the NAU women's basketball team on
Twitter,
Instagram and
Facebook for updates throughout the season.
