Loree Payne is no stranger to playing on Wednesday at the Big Sky Tournament.
Each of the last three seasons, her Northern Arizona Lumberjacks have made it to the title game at ICCU Arena in Boise.
Each time, they’ve lost.
Under Payne, the Lumberjacks have been the most consistent championship contender in the Big Sky over the past four seasons.
The Montana State team that beat them in the title game in 2022 didn’t make it back either of the next two seasons.
The Sacramento State team that beat them in 2023 immediately cratered to just six wins in 2024.
And the Eastern Washington team that beat them last year finished just 11-19 this season, took the seventh seed into Boise and lost their first-round game to Sac State on Saturday.
Each one is a cautionary tale about the difficulty of maintaining a championship level in this era of transfer-portal-driven roster turnover.
For four straight years, Payne has been the only one in the Big Sky who has avoided those pitfalls. Northern Arizona has won at least 21 games in three straight years. Over that time, Payne has become one of the most respected coaches in the conference and an up-and-comer on the mid-major scene. Yet she still doesn’t have a championship to show for it.
This year, for the third straight season, Payne has bounced back from title-game disappointment by bringing a reloaded Northern Arizona team to Boise. This year’s Lumberjacks might be the most talented squad that she’s had, with a 25-6 overall record, 16-2 Big Sky record, top-100 NET ranking and wins over 19-win Arizona and mid-major power James Madison.
That they’ve done this with two fifth-year starters, two other all-conference selections who have been in the program since high school and a multi-year transfer in the starting lineup makes NAU an impressive outlier in the mid-major ranks – and, honestly, college basketball as a whole.
And yet, because of 17-1 Montana State, who handed the ‘Jacks those two conference losses on the way to putting together one of the greatest Big Sky regular seasons in recent memory, NAU is once again staring at a second-place finish that’s become all too familiar in Boise.
Because of their respective dominance, it’s assumed that the No. 1 ‘Cats and No. 2 ‘Jacks will meet in the title game on Wednesday for the second time in four years.
For Payne to break through with a Big Sky title, she’ll have to not only overcome the only Big Sky team that’s humbled hers this year, but also the don of Big Sky coaches, Montana State’s Tricia Binford.
But if Payne and the Lumberjacks do make it back to the title game and then find a way to overcome their Wednesday jinx – especially if it comes against the Bobcats – it will be hard to deny that the coach from Havre, Montana has built NAU into the preeminent power in the Big Sky.
“I think that’s the beauty about being at a mid-major university and mid-major program,” Payne said. “There’s still a ton of value in those relationships and in team culture. … You recruit players that fit, and so then you just build this really wonderful group of people that have the same goals, and they’re striving towards the same thing. It’s a very special group this year, and I’m excited to see what they can do in this postseason.”
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Unsurprisingly for an all-time great point guard – Payne was a two-time All-Pac-10 first-teamer at Washington – her Northern Arizona teams have almost always built around the player with the ball in her hands.
And from Caitlin Malvar to Regan Schenck to Taylor Feldman, Northern Arizona’s point guard has always been among the best in the league under Payne.
Feldman, the most recent model, is blurry fast just like her predecessor Schenck, with great feel for modulating her pace up and down as the game requires.
After playing backup to Schenck in 2022-23 and splitting reps with Montana State transfer Grace Beasley last season, Feldman has taken over for good this year.
The 5-8 junior from Tustin, California, finished second in the league with 16.7 points per game and third with 3.8 assists, and received serious consideration for Big Sky MVP.
“We were her only Division I offer coming out of high school. She went to a small school, didn’t get a lot of exposure,” Payne said. “And just seeing her develop over the last three years has been phenomenal. I don’t know if Tay would be where she’s at today if she didn’t go up against Regan (Schenck) every single day her freshman year. Regan would go at her and had no mercy for the freshman. And Tay never backed down.”
Northern Arizona’s other first-team all-conference selection was post Sophie Glancey, who’s coming back to her hometown of Boise for her third straight Big Sky tournament as one of the top players in the league.
After averaging 7.9 points and 4.4 rebounds per game as a freshman, she exploded to 15.7 and 7.3 as a sophomore. This year, she’s at 18 points and 9.3 rebounds per game – first and third in the league, respectively – and was an easy unanimous all-conference selection.
Glancey’s separating skill is her preternatural touch around the basket – if she catches it in the post, it’s an almost guaranteed two points, even if she has to shoot a blind hook over her right shoulder. She shot over 50 percent for the third straight season this season.
“If she gets a catch, you know, she’s going to put points on the board,” Binford said. “She’s been that consistent for them, and she is very, very skilled at dominating the paint and rebounding the ball. That in itself, when you can be elite in a couple areas, you’re going to be very, very good.”
Northern Arizona rounds out the starting lineup with Leia Beattie, a second-year starter after transferring from Montana State, and Olivia and Nyah Moran, left-handed twins who have been in the program for five years apiece.
Beattie is one of the top 3-point shooters and passers in the conference, while the Morans fill in the gaps in the lineup with athleticism, skill and streetball confidence.
If that’s not enough, Saniyah Neverson, another junior who joined the ‘Jacks three years ago out of high school, was named the conference’s top reserve on Friday after averaging 7.2 points and 7.9 rebounds per game.
Northern Arizona led the conference in scoring by eight points per game, averaging 80.3 points when Montana State was the only other team over 67, and also finishing first in field-goal percentage, rebounding and assist-to-turnover percentage.
“(Payne) has an exceptionally talented team,” Idaho State head coach Seton Sobolewski said. “You know, the top six, top seven players could start on any team in the Big Sky. … She’s done a good job of blending kids that she’s cultivated and developed for three, four years as freshmen, and then adding great portal kids to the mix to boost their roster. She’s just done a great job.”
That exceptional talent is both a blessing and a curse for Payne and Northern Arizona. For nearly a half-decade, she’s built rosters that are favored to make it to Wednesday and play in the final Big Sky Conference game of the season. On the other hand, they’ve reached the level where only what happens on Wednesday matters. And this year is no different.
“(Last year’s loss) was motivation for our kids,” Payne said. “Both of the (Moran) twins and Leia had already decided that they were coming back for their fifth year. We had a lot of unfinished business. And pretty immediately after the season, they were like, Hey, let’s get back to work. They were hitting us up to get in the gym, and they knew that they had to get a little bit better for our team to be better. And they were committed to putting the work in so that we had an opportunity to be back where we were.”
