BOISE, Idaho (March 9, 2022) – Arriving in Flagstaff to a program near the bottom of the Big Sky Conference five years ago,
Khiarica Rasheed and
Lauren Orndoff have been through it all during their time with the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks.
Doubling their conference win total in each of the first three seasons, the pair are now headed to the Big Sky Championship game in their final year with the program.
"I don't know if I could have pictured it like this. It feels different though," Rasheed said. "It feels like we should be here after everything we've been through, I feel like I was lucky to be able to come back in the first place. I don't even know, I don't have that many words for it."
Rasheed, finishing with a team-high 16 points and seven rebounds in Wednesday night's 72-67 victory against the Northern Colorado Bears (15-16), helped push Northern Arizona to an early lead in the opening quarter.
Jumping out to a 19-6 advantage eight minutes into the game, the Lumberjacks avoided the struggles they suffered through in the quarterfinals against the Montana Lady Griz. Hitting 7-of-11 from the field to start the game, the Lumberjacks put together runs of 7-0 and 9-0 behind Rasheed and
Regan Schenck.
The duo scored Northern Arizona's first 16 points, with Schenck coming out shooting and surpassed her season average of 6.1 points just four minutes into the night. Hitting a three-pointer to take the advantage at 3-2 with 8:39 left in the first, Schenck gave the Lumberjacks a lead they never relinquished despite the Bears' comeback attempts. Adding in a layup after a pair of baskets for Rasheed, Schenck answered a layup by Kurstyn Harden with her second three-pointer of the opening minutes.
Finishing with 12 points and 10 assists for her first double-double of the season, Schenck set a new single-season record for assists at 178 to surpass Sade Cunningham's record of 177 set in 2008-09.
"This game I especially shot the ball a lot more than I have throughout the season," said Schenck, who recorded three assists in the first 2:22 of the quarter to set the new record. "Really just my teammates getting open for me makes it easy to get the assists."
Northern Colorado made its first run to come within three points of Northern Arizona early on in the second as it extended a 6-0 run to close the first quarter into a 10-0 run with four points in the opening minute of the quarter.
Nina Radford ended the run 20 seconds later with a three-pointer, beginning a 20-5 stretch spanning nearly eight minutes of the quarter.
Fatoumata Jaiteh scored seven points on the run, all off assists by Schenck inside the paint, as the freshman finished with nine points and four rebounds.
Leading by as much as 18 points in the first half, Northern Arizona eventually made it a 19-point advantage as Rasheed controlled another three-minute stretch with eight consecutive points before Northern Colorado made its final push for the game.
Ending the third quarter on a 10-3 run, the Bears eventually brought the game within four points as Hannah Simental took over with her shooting prowess.
With 10 points in the fourth quarter, all coming in a four-minute span as part of a 12-3 run, Simental finished with 27 points while hitting 8-of-18 from the field including 5-of-11 from three-point range.
However after Simental's final three of the game, Northern Colorado went scoreless for more than a minute as Northern Arizona ate up time on its own offensive end and Allie Downing missed a three of her own.
Coming down with the defensive rebound,
Miki'ala Maio converted a pair of free throws on the other end and added two more after Alexis Chapman cut the score back to four on a driving layup with 29 seconds left.
After an offensive rebound on a missed free throw by Sabine Lipe, Simental missed her opportunity to make it a one-possession game with a three-pointer at the 11-second mark and Chapman committed a turnover on a pass intercepted by Maio to wrap up the Lumberjacks' victory.
Including her four consecutive free throws to close out the win, Maio finished the fourth quarter with 10 points, three rebounds and three steals. The senior finished the semifinal with 12 points, five rebounds and four steals overall, hitting 4-of-8 from the field.
As a team, the Lumberjacks finished 50 percent from the field while holding the Bears to just 34.9 percent. With Northern Colorado outrebounding Northern Arizona 38-31 and turnovers only slightly in the Lumberjacks' favor at 14-12, the shooting advantage proved to be the difference in the game.
Northern Arizona now faces Montana State on Friday at 1 p.m. for the Big Sky Conference title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Lumberjacks will make their first appearance in the championship game since 2007 when they fell to the Idaho State Bengals 84-78 in Missoula, Montana and are looking for their first championship since the 2006 tournament, a 74-59 victory over the Weber State Wildcats in Pocatello, Idaho.
"We've had our challenges just trying to get them to expect to win," Payne said of the program's turnaround since her arrival ahead of the 2017-18 season. "You don't change a program without going through some fire and we have definitely been through a lot of fire. But I feel like the resilience of this group has been pretty phenomenal just to still persevere through everything."
As with all Big Sky Tournament games, Friday's title game will be available on ESPN+, as well as Hulu with the Disney Bundle. The championship game will also be broadcast on 93.5 FM/AM 930 KAFF Country Legends and at nauathletics.com/listen. Fans can also follow along through live stats at bigskystats.com and keep up-to-date with NAU Women's Basketball at the Big Sky Conference Tournament on
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