BOISE, Idaho – For five minutes, Loree Payne saw what she’d been working towards for five years.
Down 15 points late in the third quarter of their Big Sky championship matchup against Montana State, Payne’s Northern Arizona team didn’t fold.
Instead, they scored seven straight points in the final two minutes, 20 seconds of the third quarter, then another 10 to start the fourth.
Despite flipping that deficit into a two-point lead, the Lumberjacks didn’t end up winning, or punching their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
Montana State’s star guard Darian White scored eight of the next 10 points, and the Bobcats went on to win 75-64 in a game that was closer than the final score.
But during that run, Payne’s team embodied all the qualities she’s tried to instill over her five-year tenure in Flagstaff: They were balanced. Dangerous. Talented. And, more than anything, resilient.
Miki’ala Maio started the run with a jumper and a layup in the third quarter. Emily Rodabaugh hit three triples, including one on a possession that was extended by an offensive rebound. Regan Schenck swished a pull-up jumper, and Khiarica Rasheed bullied inside for a layup on an inbounds play.
That came not only after Montana State had built its biggest lead of the game, but also after senior NAU guard Lauren Orndoff collapsed on the baseline in the first half with sobs that could be heard all the way up in the third deck and had to be helped off the court with what looked like a serious knee injury.
“I think it definitely impacted us,” Payne said. “It’s just an emotional strain, and you add that to the adrenaline of the championship game, it’s a lot to manage and navigate through. I’m proud of them. I think the seniors have really sustained a lot of ups and downs and they’ve stayed incredibly resilient.”
Northern Arizona has been one of the most talented teams in the Big Sky for most of Payne’s tenure, at least since Schenck joined sophomores Rasheed, Orndoff and Nina Radford on campus in 2018-19.
Rasheed is an unorthodox post player at 5-foot-11, but averaged 16.5 points and seven rebounds as a junior in 2019-20, leading to a Big Sky preseason MVP nod the next year.
Schenck has missed just one game since stepping onto campus as a transition dynamo, stat-sheet-stuffing point guard.
Orndoff is a 40% 3-point shooter, and Radford is a 6-footer with size, shooting and court vision who was named the conference’s Newcomer of the Year in 2019-20 after sitting out a year following her transfer from UC Santa Barbara.
At various points during that foursome’s careers, the Lumberjacks have also had Jacey Bailey, an all-conference-level sniper despite one of the most awkward releases around; Caitlin Malvar, who finished third in the conference in assists and had the first triple-double in program history (Schenck has the second) in 2019-20; Maio and JJ Nakai, both Nevada transfers and high-level scoring guards; and Emily Rodabaugh, another 6-footer with shooting touch.
That’s an awful lot of talent, on par with the best rosters in the conference. It’s led to consistent improvement – after going 7-23 in Payne’s first year, the Lumberjacks were 13-18 in her second year and over .500 in each of the next three – but it hasn’t led to them breaking into that top tier alongside programs like Montana State, Idaho State and Idaho.
Despite being above .500 in the last three years, their combined record in those seasons is just 48-43.
“I knew when I came in here, I couldn’t have a championship standard immediately with kids who had no idea how to win,” Payne said. “So we slowly had to progress and really continue to up the bar, and they continued to fight for it, they continued to work hard.”
For somebody who’s made a lot of progress, Payne must feel uncommonly like Wile E. Coyote – every time she’s set things up for success, the universe knocks her down in ways that seem increasingly capricious.
After being named preseason MVP, Rasheed missed the first part of last season with an injury and still hasn’t gotten back to her first-team all-conference peak. Orndoff missed the back half of her sophomore season in 2018-19 with a medical condition that also forced her to sit out 2020-21 because she was considered high-risk for COVID. Malvar also elected to sit out that season, ending her career. Because of transfer rules and an injury, this season was only the second Radford has played at NAU despite being on campus for four years.
That’s left NAU’s roster progression looking like the files of a corrupt city government — lots of unexplained gaps, things not exactly lining up where they’re supposed to. That’s where the team has had to rely on Payne’s lessons on resilience, on plowing forward and following the path despite misfortune, and this season was no different.
Nakai, NAU’s leading scorer a year ago and the fourth-leading returning scorer in the league, was ruled academically ineligible after appearing in just three games. They had a non-conference game in December canceled, and two Big Sky games postponed in the first two weeks of January, cluttering their schedule later in the year. Those are things that can happen to any team, but they also open the door to complacency. They offer a team an escape route, a chance to say, We had some bad luck and we still finished with an OK record. That’s good enough.
Instead, the Lumberjacks advanced farther in the conference tournament than they have in over a decade, and they kept fighting to the very end despite some more misfortune in the title game.
“We talked at halftime, I just didn’t feel like they were playing their best basketball,” Payne said. “I felt we were almost at that turning point of, alright, are we just going to say mercy and give in because we’re a player down, or are we going to come back and fight? There was a moment in the third quarter when they (Montana State) went on a little bit of a run and we had another opportunity to fold or fight. This team just kept fighting.”
As she left the arena, a small group of NAU fans cornered Payne to share their sympathies.
Saw a lot of good things this year, coach.
See you next year.
Even though she had just lost one of the toughest games of her career, even though she’ll lose Rasheed, Orndoff and Maio, at a minimum, next year, Payne just smiled.
Sounds good, guys. Thanks.
“We’re excited for young kids to get a chance to experience this atmosphere, to be able to build upon what we’ve already created and the foundation that’s been laid,” Payne said. “It’s just motivation for our players and our program to continue to put the work in, continue to grow, continue to develop, and looking forward to hopefully being back here next year.”
