Second-Half Defense Leads Northern Arizona to 81-67 Victory Over Eastern Washington

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (March 2, 2022) – Entering the night as the top scoring team in the Big Sky Conference, there was no shortage of points for the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks on Wednesday night in the Walkup Skydome.
 
However, it wound up being the team's second-half defense that earned an 81-67 victory over the Eastern Washington Eagles.
 
Holding the Eagles (8-20, 6-13 Big Sky) to just 24 second-half points while shooting 25.7 percent from the field, the Lumberjacks (14-13, 11-8) pulled away early in the fourth quarter thanks to a rapid 8-0 run all by Emily Rodabaugh.
 
Connecting on a three-pointer on Northern Arizona's first possession of the quarter, Rodabaugh followed up with a layup to force a quick Eastern Washington timeout and buried another three-pointer just another 40 seconds later.
 
Finishing with 21 points and nine rebounds, Rodabaugh reached double-digits for the fourth consecutive game and hit at least 19 for the third time in those four contests. With Eastern Washington hitting 6-of-9 from three in the opening half, Rodabaugh's pair of threes helped Northern Arizona keep pace as the Eagles hit 57.1 percent in the second quarter.
 
"I feel like I'm playing really confidently right now and I feel like I've kind of shown that once I hit my first one, if I can get another one back-to-back real quick then it's really good for the team," Rodabaugh said.
 
As has been the case for much of the season, some of Rodabaugh's success can be credited to Regan Schenck's continued excellence with her passing. 
 
Finishing with six points, seven rebounds and eight assists, Schenck moved into sole possession of second all-time on Northern Arizona's assist list and third all-time for a single season. Five of Northern Arizona's seven threes came off assists by Schenck, including one to Lauren Orndoff who effectively put the game away giving Northern Arizona a 76-63 lead with just 2:35 remaining.
 
While half of the Lumberjacks' second-half points came from Rodabaugh and Orndoff, 10 second-half rebounds by Khiarica Rasheed helped set the stage for Northern Arizona's transition offense. 
 
Outrebounding Eastern Washington 53-29, the second-largest rebounding margin for the team this season, Northern Arizona's defense forced 26 misses in the second half. Tied 43-43 at the half, with the Eagles hitting 53.6 percent from the field, the Lumberjacks stepped up in the second half.
 
"We talked at halftime, giving up 43 points is absolutely unacceptable in a half," said Lumberjacks head coach Loree Payne. "Obviously we scored 43 so it's a good thing we were hitting, but we needed to take a little more pride in our defense. We just talked about being there with a little more urgency on defense and being there quicker on the catch."
 
The threes stopped falling for Eastern Washington after halftime, hitting just 3-of-12 from outside after the hot start. Having doubled up the Eagles 22-11 on the boards in the opening half, Northern Arizona's advantage continued as Eastern Washington began to miss more often.
 
Trailing 50-48 with 5:30 left in the third quarter, Northern Arizona went on a 10-3 run that began their takeover of what had been a tight game throughout the night. With Eastern Washington hitting just 2-of-22 across a 12-minute stretch of the second half, Northern Arizona cleaned up on the defensive boards.
 
The 53 rebounds marked the highest total for the Lumberjacks this season and the first 50-rebound game for the program since January 2020.
 
"A lot of it was defensive rebounds," Payne said. "That really starts our transition game. For us to get stops and get those outlets to our guards to push, it gives us a great opportunity to have success on the offensive end when we are in our transition offense."
 
Rasheed finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds, tying her career-high she last set against FIU in last year's WBI first round. Olivia Moran made it four Lumberjacks in double-digits, hitting 3-of-4 off the bench and connecting on all four of her free throws for 10 points and seven rebounds.
 
Now sitting at 11-8 in the Big Sky, Northern Arizona enters the season finale in a three-way tie for fourth place with Idaho and Montana while Sacramento State trails by a game at 10-9. A win for Northern Arizona against Idaho would clinch a top five-seed while a loss and a victory by Montana over Sacramento State would push the Lumberjacks to sixth. A loss by Northern Arizona and Montana would create a three-way tie between the Lumberjacks, Lady Griz and the Hornets. In that scenario, the three teams would have all split their two games against one another with the tiebreaker coming down to the record against the top finishers in the conference in descending order.
 
As the Lumberjacks welcome the Vandals to Flagstaff on Friday, Northern Arizona will celebrate Senior Day for Sentia Bryant, Miki'ala Maio, Nina Radford, Orndoff and Rasheed. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m., with the presentation for the five seniors set to begin 10 minutes prior to tipoff. 

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