FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The NAU women’s basketball team will play its first game under new head coach Sue Darling at 7 p.m. Friday in The Pit at New Mexico. The Lumberjacks return a veteran team with four seniors and 20 years of combined collegiate playing experience as they open their season in arguably the premier women’s college basketball atmosphere in the western United States.
Friday’s season opener at New Mexico will be broadcast live beginning at 6:40 p.m. on 105.1 FM The Big Talker.
Darling spent the last four seasons as an assistant coach at Arizona, her alma mater, and previously served as the head coach at Air Force for three seasons from 1999 to 2002. Darling has 27 years of basketball coaching experience at the high school, junior college, college, and professional levels, including stints as an assistant at both Arizona and Arizona State. Along with new assistant coaches Jamie Shadian, Robyne Bostick, and Karlie Burris, Darling looks to usher in a new era of women’s basketball at NAU.
“We’re extremely excited to go over to New Mexico,” said Darling. “Everyone knows about the history of that program and playing at The Pit is a great place for us to start our era. I think we have a very nice team; we’re very talented and our calling card will be playing hard, playing together, and playing smart.”
The Lumberjacks return 20 years of combined collegiate playing experience among its 11 returners. Included among them are seniors Aubrey Davis, Paige Haynes, Amy Patton, and Tyler Stephens-Jenkins. Patton and Stephens-Jenkins have been three-year starters for the Lumberjacks. Davis became a starter last season and has been with the program since her freshman year, and Haynes joined the team last year following two years playing in junior college. The squad also returns two juniors and five sophomores with significant playing experience, joined by two new freshmen. Patton, Stephens-Jenkins, Davis, and junior Amanda Frost return as four of the team’s top-five leading scorers from last season.
Patton has proven to be one of the most dynamic players in program history. She enters the 2012-13 season third in program history with 1,438 points, just 12 points shy of second place and 240 points off the all-time scoring record. Patton earned her third All-Big Sky second team selection last season to become just the third player in program history to be a three-time All-Big Sky honoree. She has led NAU in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and minutes played in each of the last two seasons and is second in program history with a career 16.5 points per game scoring average. Despite all of her accomplishments Patton and the rest of her teammates have never played in a postseason game, making her senior campaign about getting to the postseason and winning the conference more than the individual accolades.
“I’m really looking forward to Friday; the players are all really excited and practice has been great,” said Patton on the Lumberjacks Weekly podcast. “We’re all looking to push the ball a lot and we will be a transition team this year. My main goal this year is getting to the postseason and hopefully winning the tournament and advancing to NCAAs.”
New Mexico has made eight NCAA appearances in its history but struggled last season with an 11-20 overall record and a 3-11 mark in the Mountain West conference. Despite their struggles, the team continued to draw the biggest women’s basketball fan base in the western United States, averaging 6,763 fans per game and topping 100,000 in attendance during the 2011-12 season. The team returns three starters from last season, including senior guard Caroline Durbin, who led the team with 15.0 points per game last season while shooting 47.7 percent from 3-point range.
New Mexico played two exhibition games this season, topping Northern New Mexico 91-18 and Eastern New Mexico 56-37. NAU is 6-18 all-time against New Mexico and 1-13 against the Lobos in Albuquerque.
