Despite trailing by 10 midway through the first quarter, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks remained calm as they slowly climbed back in the game against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds.
Then came the explosive Lumberjack offense everyone should be growing familiar with as the nation's No. 25 scoring offense ripped through the Thunderbirds for a 17-2 run over the final 8:54 of the second quarter. While Southern Utah retook a five-point lead out of the break, 40 points in the game's final 15 minutes pushed Northern Arizona to a 76-65 victory Saturday afternoon at Rolle Activity Center.
"I feel like we just got better and better every quarter," said Lumberjacks head coach Loree Payne. "It was good to get back to the old way of playing. Southern Utah is a very good team, so I'm really proud of the team for locking in and finishing at the end."
Taking down their former Big Sky Conference foe, the Lumberjacks (4-5, 0-0 Big Sky) finished with a 48-40 advantage on the boards against a Thunderbirds team with 6-foot-5 Lizzy Williamson, 6-foot-3 Megan Jensen and 6-foot-5 Ashley Banks playing 28, 24 and 11 minutes respectively. Four different Lumberjacks came down with at least seven boards, as Regan Schenck and Emily Rodabaugh led the team with eight apiece while Nyah Moran and Sophie Glancey finished with seven each.
The total set a new career high for Nyah Moran, as did the six rebounds for Fatoumata Jaiteh, and the 40 from Southern Utah was the third lowest for a Northern Arizona opponent this season as well as the second lowest for the Thunderbirds this season.
"Their post play is phenomenal," Payne said. "Our posts knew we had their work cut out for us, so I think they came in and got shocked a little bit right away and then we were able to bounce back. But we have really good post players too, so we fought back."
Williamson scored eight of her 10 points in the first quarter, leading the Thunderbirds to an 18-8 lead before a pair of threes by Glancey and Schenck pulled the Lumberjacks within five through the first 10 minutes.
With Williamson on the court for just four minutes of the second, Jensen scored six points for the Thunderbirds in the quarter to enter halftime with 10.
However, Jesen's six would be Southern Utah's only scoring for the 10-minute stretch as Northern Arizona won the quarter 17-6 thanks to the 17-2 run started by Glancey. Scoring eight consecutive points for the Lumberjacks, the freshman forward went to work as she matched Schenck for a team-high 15 points. Now at 10 or more points in seven of her nine career appearances, Glancey put in six of Northern Arizona's 18 second-chance points with the Lumberjacks holding an 11-point advantage over the Thunderbirds in the category.
Glancey also continued to reap the benefit of playing alongside Schenck, with a three-pointer and a fastbreak layup coming off assists by the point guard. Schenck, who finished with 15 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, found Glancey open for a crucial basket in the final moments of the game.
Leading 68-61, Schenck sent a ball into the paint from behind the halfcourt line into Glancey who came down with the pass, took a dribble and went up for a layup that forced Southern Utah into a timeout as Northern Arizona took a nine-point lead with 1:46 to play.
"She's learning. At first, I think it was kind of tough for her with just the speed of the game from high school to college. She's said it before, it's way faster," Schenck said. "And sometimes I pass it a little too hard, but she's getting used to it and she's really growing as a player every week."
Glancey wasn't alone on the receiving end of an impressive close to the game for Schenck, with the senior point guard finding Montana Oltrogge open behind the three-point line twice in the opening two minutes of the fourth quarter. As Oltrogge knocked down the shots, Northern Arizona turned a four-point lead at the close of the third quarter into an eight-point advantage.
Schenck made it three consecutive Lumberjack baskets off assists from her as Nyah Moran came down with a long crosscourt pass that led to a single dribble drive to the basket for a layup through contact.
Rodabaugh joined Schenck and Glancey in double-figures with 11 points, including a three-pointer to extend her streak of hitting at least once from outside to 18 consecutive games. Nyah Moran added eight, with Oltrogge and Jaith at eight apiece.
The Lumberjacks will head out on the first of two road trips before Big Sky play begins in less than four weeks, with the Fresno State Bulldogs up next on
Thursday followed by the Cal Poly Mustangs on Saturday, Dec. 10. Links to streams and live stats for both games are available at NAUAthletics.com.
Original source can be found here.
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