Eastern Washington senior Brianne Ryan, the Big Sky’s leading scorer, poured in 29 points and the Eagles shot 52 percent as a team en route to an 84-58 win over Northern Arizona on Thursday.
The Eagles won their fourth consecutive game, improving to 8-2 in the Big Sky and 14-9 overall, while the Lumberjacks dropped to 7-15 overall and 2-8 in conference play.
“We did not have good effort and we didn’t control the ball in transition, which gave them a ton of easy scores,” NAU head coach Laurie Kelly said. “Against good teams, if you make mistakes, they’re going to exploit you, and that’s what Eastern did. They played really good team basketball and executed, and that was our plan going in and we did not do that.”
NAU jumped to an early 4-0 lead, but that would be its only lead of the game. The Eagles responded with an immediate 11-0 run to build a seven-point cushion. Eastern Washington held an 18-10 lead with 10:28 remaining in the opening half, but a 6-0 spurt brought the visitors to within two points at 18-16 with nine minutes remaining in the opening period. NAU still trailed by just two with 7:06 to play, but an 11-2 run by Eastern Washington gave the home team a 32-19 lead and an eventual 41-27 halftime advantage.
The Lumberjacks cut their deficit back to single digits with a 10-5 run through the first three minutes of the second half to bring the score to 46-37, but NAU could get no closer. Down 58-46 with 12:58 to play, NAU would go scoreless for more than four minutes as Eastern built its lead to 19 points. The Eagles' lead would reach 20 with 7:05 to play and reach 26 by the final buzzer.
NAU had two players finish in double figures, with junior Aubrey Davis totaling 11 points and five rebounds and junior Amy Patton adding 10 points and seven boards.
Ryan had 20 points in the first half and scored her 29 points on 12-of-23 shooting to go with six rebounds and four assists. Eagles point guard Chene Cooper posted 12 points, nine assists, and six rebounds.
In addition to shooting 52 percent from the field, the Eagles went 14 of 19 from the free-throw line, while the Lumberjacks were just 12 of 22 at the stripe. Eastern held a 38-30 rebounding edge, posting 20 assists compared to just nine helpers for the Lumberjacks. NAU shot 41 percent from the field and was just 2 of 9 from 3-point range.
“When we play bad, it’s when we don’t play together,” Kelly said. “If we don’t change our effort and play team basketball, we will not have different results. Portland State is a great team with good guards, and transition defense and getting out on shooters will be critical for us again on Saturday."
