FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (Nov. 29, 2023) – The Northern Arizona University women's basketball team returned home to Flagstaff to the Rolle Activity Center to host UNLV tonight, falling 85-69 in a hard-fought matchup.
The Rebels stay undefeated, moving to 7-0 on the year, while a four-game winning streak was snapped for the Lumberjacks who dropped to 4-3.
Northern Arizona fell behind by 17 points before an 11-0 run in the third quarter boosted the Lumberjacks to cut the deficit to two points in the fourth, but the Rebels used a 14-0 run to close the game to seal the victory.
Four players scored in double figures, led by
Leia Beattie and
Emily Rodabaugh with 13 points apiece.
Taylor Feldman and
Sophie Glancey each added 11, while
Saniyah Neverson finished with 10 rebounds, four blocks and six points.
The Lumberjacks forced 16 turnovers and only committed 11 while the bench added 24 points. NAU blocked the Rebels seven times but were out-rebounded 46-to-31.
"I'm really proud of the team. This (UNLV) is a team who is receiving top-25 votes and one of the best teams that we'll face all year. We knew coming off a weekend of two tough games and two good wins that we had an opportunity to maybe get one here, but they're really, really good on both ends of the floor. That doesn't give you a lot of room to make mistakes, and they took advantage of some of our little mistakes here and there," said head coach
Loree Payne. "I told our players in the locker room that we're getting ready for December 30
th. That's why we do all this nonconference, to get ready for conference play. We're learning from losses, we're learning from wins, but I feel like we're in a really good spot right now as a team and we're excited to go into December with four tough games that will challenge us, but definitely four winnable games to get some momentum going into conference."
It was a fast paced, back and forth game from the start as UNLV led 25-19 by the first media timeout, with the Jacks shooting 58.3 (7-12) percent from the field compared to 66.7 (10-15) percent for the Rebels. Out of the media timeout, it was all Lumberjacks as they exploded for a 7-0 run that included five points from
Olivia Moran and helped NAU cut their deficit down to 30-28 at the end of the first.
Leia Beattie made it a 30-30 game to start the second quarter, but UNLV immediately took back control with a 5-0 run. From there, both teams cooled down considerably compared to the first quarter, with the Lumberjacks starting the quarter 3-for-8 from the field compared to 2-of-8 for the Rebels. It was UNLV who found its footing again first, stringing together a 13-2 run to pull ahead 48-36 for its largest lead of the game. At the half, the Lumberjacks trailed 51-43.
In the first half, Northern Arizona was 18-for-38 (47.4%) from the field with four triples compared to the Rebels who were 19-for-35 (54.3%). The Lumberjacks forced nine turnovers and only committed six but were out-rebounded 22-15.
The third quarter appeared to be all Rebels, as the Lumberjacks fell behind 65-48 near the midway point. However, a
Grace Beasley layup sparked an 11-0 run that spanned over five minutes and kept UNLV off the board for 5:14 of the third quarter. Heading into the fourth, UNLV held a 67-59 lead.
Six points during the 11-0 run came from
Taylor Feldman, who hit a three-pointer to start the fourth to put the Lumberjacks within five points.
Saniyah Neverson followed with a layup to make it a 67-64 contest in favor of the Rebels. But the tables turned, and it was UNLV's turn for the large run as the Rebels finished the game on a 14-0 run and kept NAU off the scoreboard for the final 5:20 of the game to secure the 85-69 win.
NAU ended the game shooting 40.6 percent (28-69) from the field with seven triples, while UNLV shot 48.4 percent (31-64) and added eight three-pointers. The Rebels also added 15-of-19 from the charity stripe compared to 6-of-9 for the Lumberjacks.
Northern Arizona now has a week off in between games and will return to the Rolle Activity Center on Wednesday, Dec. 6 for a 12 p.m. Mountain Standard time tip against Pacific.
