BOISE, Idaho (March 11, 2022) – Trailing by 15 with just 2:31 left in the third quarter, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks made one last run at the Big Sky Conference Championship.
A 17-0 run, with seven to close out the third quarter and another 10 to begin the fourth, pushed the Lumberjacks (17-14) in front of the Montana State Bobcats (22-12) by two. However, Montana State answered with a 6-0 run to regain control and close out the title game with a 75-64 victory Friday afternoon in Boise, Idaho.
"I'm super proud of our players and this program to get to this place, it's something that we all kind of just had to take in and understand we made it to the championship game this year and we battled," said Lumberjacks head coach
Loree Payne. "The nerves got to us a little bit, you can see that in our shooting percentage. Hats off to Montana State, they played a solid game and disrupted our offense."
After hitting 5-of-11 from the field to open the game, the Lumberjacks went cold throughout the second quarter and midway into the third. Connecting on just five of their next 29 field goal attempts, the Lumberjacks' defense and rebounding kept them within striking distance of the Bobcats.
Finishing the game with a 47-29 advantage on the boards, including 17 offensive rebounds, Northern Arizona finished with 11 more attempts from the field than Montana State despite committing 17 turnovers.
The rebounding disparity for the Bobcats left the No. 2 seed leading by just seven with six minutes left in the quarter following back-to-back layups for
Fatoumata Jaiteh and
Olivia Moran. However, a 14-6 run by Montana State through a three-minute stretch of the third pushed its lead to 51-36 after three trips to the offensive end netted the Bobcats three points.
After a three-point play for Kola Bad Bear, Ava Ranson and Leia Beattie connected on back-to-back three pointers as part of a pivotal 10-2 run.
Playing without
Lauren Orndoff, who sustained a knee injury with 3:11 left in the second quarter, the Lumberjacks were forced to play without one of their best perimeter defenders. After shooting 29.4 percent in the first quarter, Montana State hit 50 percent from the field in the second and 60 percent in the third quarter.
A defensive rebound by
Emily Rodabaugh off a missed free throw from Ranson marked the start of Northern Arizona's late run. A pair of baskets by
Miki'ala Maio around a three-pointer by Rodabaugh closed out the third quarter with a 7-0 run in the final 2:20 .
"The kids made a run. I think it really hurt us in that second quarter, you see six points and that's part when Lauren went down and they were just trying to emotionally regroup," Payne said. "That's tough and they are young. We haven't had any injuries like that during a game. It's just an emotional strain. And add that to the adrenaline of the championship game and it's a lot."
Regan Schenck hit a jumper just 20 seconds into the fourth, with Rodabaugh hitting another three to bring Northern Arizona within three points at 51-48. After
Khiarica Rasheed cut it to one with a layup, Rodabaugh gave the Lumberjacks their first lead since the middle of the second quarter.
A Montana State timeout immediately followed, with the Lumberjacks up 53-51 and 7:24 remaining in the fourth.
Darian White, who was named the Big Sky Conference Tournament MVP, came out with six straight points across the following two minutes as the Bobcats retook control. While the Lumberjacks remained within a possession thanks to a pair of baskets by Maio, a three-pointer by Katelynn Limardo pushed the Bobcats advantage to five with 2:18 left.
Despite Schenck, who earned All-Big Sky Conference Tournament honors along with Rasheed, hitting a pair of free throws, Montana State connected on 9-of-10 from the line to close out the victory.
Rodabaugh finished with a double-double, scoring a team-high 16 points to go along with 11 rebounds, while Maio added 14 points off the bench. Schenck nearly recorded a double-double of her own, scoring 12 points with nine rebounds and four assists.
