JackCentral

The NAU women’s basketball continued to struggle on the road. The Lumberjacks lost their final game of the regular season 85-67 at Northern Colorado on March 6.
The Lady Jacks’ only lead came on the first basket of the game. The Jacks finished the season 2-12 on the road and 10-19 overall.
“We played tired and did not defend,” said head coach Laurie Kelly. “We are not scoring a lot right now, it is all about defense and keeping it close.”
The Lumberjacks held one lead during the game when they scored first to make the game 2-0. The game was tied for the second and final time at 5-5, the Bears would lead the rest of the way. Northern Colorado would lead by as many as 18 points twice in the game.
The Lumberjacks shot just 35 percent from the field, shooting 23-66, while the Bears finished the game at 55 percent going 31-56. Both teams finished around 50 percent from three-point range. The Lady Jacks made 11-22 from beyond the arch good for 50 percent, including 5-7 from junior guard Janelle Matthews.
“I just tried to hit my shots,” Matthews said. “It is hard on offense when we give up that many points.”
The Bears shot 9-17 from three-point range good for 53 percent. The Lumberjacks were 10-14 from the free-throw line good for 71 percent. The Bears were 14-16 from the foul line, good for 88 percent.
Matthews led all NAU scorers with a career-high 23 points. Also scoring in double digits were senior forward Laura Dinkins with 11 points and junior guard Sadé Cunningham, who scored 10 points to go along with seven assists.
“Mentally we just were not in the game,” Dinkins said. “They just wanted it more.”
The Lumberjacks were outrebounded 43-27. The Lady Jacks’ leading rebounder, junior center Ashley Ingle, played only 12 minutes. She spent most of the night on the bench in foul trouble.
“We definitely play our best basketball when we defend, rebound and when Ashley is in the game,” Kelly said. “She opens us up on offense and is the spark on defense.”
Northern Colorado was led by Danielle Hagen, who scored 20 points to go along with 19 rebounds. Jamie Schroeder scored 24 points for the Bears and grabbed 10 rebounds for her own double-double. Courtney Stoermer added 17 points and nine assists for UNC.
The Lumberjacks were outrebounded by the Bears 43-27. Northern Colorado was able to pull in 36 rebounds on the defensive side. The Lumberjacks only turned the ball over nine times compared to 15 turnovers for UNC. The Bears had 22 assists while the Lumberjacks had only 14.
With the loss, the Lumberjacks remained tied with Weber State for the sixth and final spot in the Big Sky conference tournament. After a season sweep of Weber State, the Lady Jacks held any tiebreaker over the Wildcats.
Both sitting at six conference wins, the Wildcats still had one game to play against Idaho State on March 8. The Lumberjacks got the help they needed as the Bengals defeated the Wildcats 81-69.
“I didn’t think they could pull off a win at Idaho State on senior night,” Kelly said. “If they could then I really felt they deserved to be in the tournament.”
The Lumberjacks have made the conference tournament 13 consecutive years. Only Montana has a longer streak of making the Big Sky tournament. Appearing in the final game each of the past two years, Montana has won the tournament as the third seed in 2006 and finishing as runners-up as the fourth seed in 2007.
“The leaders on this team are going to have to step up and show the younger girls what it takes to win,” Dinkins said.
Top seed Montana will host the tournament. NAU will face Montana State on March 12. The Lumberjacks split games against third-seeded Montana State this season, losing 78-65 on the road and winning 71-70 at the buzzer at home.
“Montana State is a better match-up for us right now,” Kelly said. “Beating them last month should give us confidence.”
Montana and Idaho State will have quarterfinal byes as the first and second seeds, respectively. Fourth-seeded Portland State will face fifth-seeded Northern Colorado in Missoula, Mont. following NAU’s game. Both games will be played on March 12.
“I think people under estimate us,” Matthews said. “We can beat anyone. Our team is much better than our record indicates.”
The Lumberjacks also received individual regular season awards. Cunningham and Dinkins were named second team all-Big Sky. It is the first time for both players to be named to an all-conference team.
Although not named to all-conference teams last year Dinkins was the 2007 Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year, and Cunningham was named All-Big Sky honorable mention in 2007.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 6:53 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.