| Final | 1 | 2 | T |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Arizona (4-13, 3-5 BSC) | 19 | 35 | 54 |
| Northern Colorado (8-9, 5-3 BSC) | 32 | 37 | 69 |
| Greeley, Colo. (Butler-Hancock) | |||
| Northern Arizona | Northern Colorado |
|---|---|
| Pts: PATTON, Amy - 14 | Pts: Lauren Oosdyke - 24 |
| Reb: STEPHENS-JENKINS, T - 7 | Reb: D'Shara Strange - 8 |
| Ast: 2 Players (#03, #34 - 4) | Ast: D'Shara Strange - 6 |
| Team Statistics | Northern Arizona | Northern Colorado |
|---|---|---|
| Field Goal % | 43.5% (20-46 ) | 54.0% (27-50 ) |
| Rebounds | 23 | 30 |
| Assists | 12 | 16 |
| Turnovers | 16 | 16 |
| Pts off Turnovers | 15 | 20 |
| 2nd Chance Pts | 6 | 11 |
| Pts in the Paint | 26 | 32 |
| Fastbreak Pts | 4 | 6 |
| Bench Pts | 18 | 20 |
Oosdyke lifts women's basketball past Lumberjacks
By HEATHER KENNEDY
UNCBears.com
GREELEY – A dominating performance by senior forward Lauren Oosdyke lifted the Northern Colorado Women's Basketball team to a 69-54 victory over Northern Arizona inside Butler-Hancock on Thursday evening.
Oosdyke missed just one shot inside the arc, going 11-for-12 to score a season-best 24 points. She was 11-for-14 overall, missing a pair of three-pointers. It is the third time this season Oosdyke has topped the 20-point scoring mark in a Big Sky Conference game and is one-point better than her previous high of 23 from Montana State on Jan. 10.
"I think the first half was one of the best halves of her career," Head Coach Jaime White said about Oosdyke. "She really put the team on her shoulders. I thought she was very focused tonight and she played equally as well defensively. She was on {Amy} Patton the whole first half and she only got one shot off."
The Bears (8-9, 5-3 Big Sky) also had double figure scoring nights from juniors Molly Duehn (11) and D'shara Strange (10) as they defeated the Lumberjacks (4-13, 3-5) for the seventh-straight time.
Strange led the game with eight rebounds and six assists, recording the 600th rebound of her career. With her 10 points, she is also just four shy of the lofty milestone of 1,000.
Nine of Duehn's 11 points came from beyond the arc as she was a perfect 3-for-3 on the night. She also had two big blocked shots in 23 minutes off the bench.
Northern Colorado held NAU senior point guard Amy Patton – the Big Sky's leading scorer – to 14 points, all of which came in the second half. Patton entered the night averaging 19.8 per game. She was also held to just one rebound and she leads the 'Jacks with 8.4 a contest. Patton was on the bench throughout much of the first half with foul trouble.
The Bears entered the locker room at halftime with a 13-point advantage, 32-19, and stretched it to 18 with the first two shots of the second half. The Lumberjacks cut the lead to 10 at the 10:20 mark on a three-pointer by Patton, but Oosdyke found a wide-open Duehn on the baseline and she drained her third long ball of the evening, which seemed to knock the wind out of the sails of NAU.
"We had a couple of times where it got a little scary," White said. "It's probably good for our kids to go through those situations. We made some mistakes when they switched to zone, but we also got ourselves out of it too, so we played smart at times. We saw that score dwindling a little bit, but our kids stepped up and played good defense, which we always do, but I thought we played really smart on offense."
Northern Colorado hosts Sacramento State on Saturday at 2 pm. The Hornets snuck out a 79-77 victory at North Dakota earlier in the evening to improve to 10-7 on the year and match the Bears' league record at 5-3. With Idaho State's loss at home to Montana, the two squads are tied for fourth-place in the Big Sky Conference standings, trailing Montana State (8-1), Montana (7-2) and Eastern Washington (6-3).
