Sophomore Khyra Conerly scored a career-high 24 points and junior Amy Patton posted her fourth 20-point scoring total over the last five games for Northern Arizona, but CSU Bakersfield broke open a close game early in the second half and held on for an 86-77 win Sunday afternoon.
The nonconference game was the final road contest of the season for NAU, which dropped to 8-19 overall. The Roadrunners improved to 6-21.
“I thought we didn’t do a very good job when it came to controlling the tempo,” NAU head coach Laurie Kelly said. “They pretty much play five guards, which gave us some challenges defensively with our posts having to play on the perimeter, and they were able to take advantage of that. They really pressured our guards on the offensive end, and Khyra did a nice job getting to the rim and finishing.”
Conerly surpassed her previous career-high scoring total of 17 with her 24-point performance, shooting 8 for 14 from the field and 8 for 11 from the free-throw line. She also tied career highs with five steals and two blocks while adding five rebounds and an assist with just one turnover. Patton posted seven boards to go with her 23 points, and sophomore Amanda Frost totaled a career-high eight rebounds along with 16 points and three assists.
Bakersfield jumped to an early 6-2 lead before NAU leveled the score at 9-9, one of four ties in the first half. After the Roadrunners held a 22-19 lead midway through the half, they went scoreless for nearly three minutes as NAU used a 7-0 run to take a game-high four point lead at 26-22. The home team would rally, though, using a 14-3 run to take a 36-29 lead with 3:02 to play in the opening period, but NAU closed the half on a 7-2 spurt to trail by just two points at halftime.
The score was tied at 50-50 at the 5:09 mark of the second half before Bakersfield started to pull away. NAU went scoreless for more than three minutes as Bakersfield used an 11-0 run to take a 61-50 lead, its biggest advantage of the game. The Lumberjacks were able to cut the deficit to five points with 7:24 remaining, and they would get as close as three points at 76-73 with 1:25 to play. But the Roadrunners went 10 for 10 from the free-throw line for the remainder of the game, and NAU managed only a pair of layups the rest of the way as the home team finished off the win.
NAU outshot Bakersfield 42.9 percent to 39 percent and had a 42-39 rebounding edge but was outscored 32-19 at the free-throw line and made four fewer 3-pointers than the Roadrunners. The Lumberjacks committed a season-high 32 fouls to allow 40 free throws, though 10 of those attempts occurred in the final minutes of the contest as the visitors attempted to extend the game.
