Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
Northern Arizona
Weber State picks up up 95-88 OT win over NAU
2/21/2016 12:03:00 AM | Women's Basketball
OGDEN – For the third time this season the Weber State women's basketball sent a game into overtime and with six Wildcats scoring in double figures WSU pulled out a 95-88 win over Northern Arizona.
"We had to really play a lot of pressure defense in the back court, we couldn't let them get us inside," Head Coach Bethann Ord said. "All year long we've played all hands on deck. When you go through adversity like we've gone through, and it keeps coming at us, I just reminded the girls to keep it simple and keep grinding and that's what they did.
In the second quarter NAU went on a 10-0 run with four minutes on the clock and the Lumberjacks tied the game up at 26-26. The tied bucket was followed by a three pointer by Taylor Leyva that gave NAU the lead for the first time in the game. The Wildcats managed to bring the score to 30-31 going into half time.
Kailie Quinn made a three pointer right out of halftime but Northern Arizona fought back and matched Weber State point for point until 4:16 when NAU went 5-5 and took a four point lead. Weber State had a 57-53 lead at the end of the third quarter.
The Wildcats had the lead for most of the fourth quarter but the Lumberjacks made it interesting going on a 7-2 run and bringing the score within one with under a minute left in the game. With one second on the clock Mariah Willadsen through up a layup that managed to find its way into the basket tying the game and sent it into overtime.
Overtime started with a jumper by Brittney Dunbar. The Wildcats went on a 9-0 run with under two minutes left in the game to propel them to a 95-88 win over the Lumberjacks. NAU had seven turnovers in overtime.
Weber State was led by Deeshyra Thomas who put up 23 points. Quinn had 17 points for the Wildcats including four made three pointers. Freshman Yarden Danan put up a new career high of 15 points. Emily Drake and Jaiamoni Welch-Coleman each had 11 points.
Dunbar had 16 points and the game high of rebounds with six and she had six assists. This was Dunbar's 10th game in a row having five or more assists. Thomas also had a career high of steals with seven.
Weber State shot 47 percent from the field, 38 percent from the three and 70 percent from the free throw line. Northern Arizona shot 58 percent from the field, 66 percent from the three and 82 percent from the free throw line. NAU had 28 turnovers which the Wildcats converted into 37 points. Weber State only had 14 turnovers. The Lumberjacks out rebounded the Wildcats 38-28.
Northern Arizona's Kaleigh Paplow had 36 points against Weber State which is a Big Sky record for the 2015-16 season.
This is the fourth time in school history Weber State has played three or more overtimes in a single season. The last season with three overtimes was 2006-2007. The most overtimes played in a season was in 1982-83 where the Wildcats played in five overtime games.
Weber State is now 18-7 overall on the season and 10-4 in Big Sky Conference play. Weber State will next head to Montana and Montana State for the final road games of the season.
The final regular season games will be played at home against Idaho March 2 and Eastern Washington March 4. The Wildcats will head to Reno, Nev. for the Big Sky Championships March 7-12.
