After a challenging road trip, the Northern Arizona women's basketball team (2-3) returns home to host the Hilton Garden Inn Thanksgiving Classic, the eighth-consecutive season that the Lumberjacks have hosted a Thanksgiving tournament.
The Lumberjacks will open play against Utah Valley (1-1) at 6:35 p.m. today before hosting Kent State (1-2) at 2:05 p.m. Saturday. Utah Valley and Kent State will meet in a neutral site game at 2:35 p.m Friday.
Admission for all-three games is free with the donation of two non-perishable food items, and today's game can be heard live on 105.1 FM The Big Talker and bigtalkerradio.com.
The Lumberjacks are 2-0 in home games so far this season, having outscored their opponents 71.5-54.5 and outrebounded their opposition 39.5-29.5 at the Rolle Activity Center. After going 5-3 at home in non-conference play last season, NAU opened its 2011-12 home schedule with a pair of wins against UC Riverside and Adams State. NAU has a plus-10.0 in rebounding margin in Flagstaff and the Lumberjacks have a .464 field goal percentage and .483 3-point percentage in two home games this year. Going back to last season, NAU has won five of its last-six home contests.
SWIMMING
A pair of swimmers from Orange County in southern California have signed national letters of intent to swim at NAU at next year according to an announcemet by head coach Andy Johns. Kendall Brown (Aliso Viejo, Calif./Laguna Hills HS) and Ellie Morrissey (Huntington Beach, Calif./Edison HS) both signed as early commitments to enroll at Northern Arizona next fall.
"We still have some work to do for the spring signing period but these two swimmers will really be great additions for our program," Johns said. "Southern California is a great place to be recruiting from and it's been a while since we've had any girls from there on the team, so to get two from quality programs is huge for us."
Brown was a three-year team captain at Laguna Hills HS and also swam for the Aquazot club team. She was a CIF finalist in two events and league champion in two events in 2011 and was also a CIF qualifier in 2009 and 2010. She led her team to a second place finish in the Sunset League, falling just short of Edison high school, Ellie Morrissey's team. She was a CIF master's 2011 All-Star team selection, was selected for the North American Challenge Cup (NACC) team to represent southern California against Mexico and Canada, and placed 23rd in the 1500 free at the 2011 USA Swimming Junior Nationals.
Morrissey's Edison HS won Sunset League championships in each of her four seasons and was the 2009 CIF state champion and 2010 and 11 state runner-up. She broke her high school records in the 100 free and 200 IM and was on the 400 free relay team that set a CIF Championship record. She also swam in the NAAC meet and made national cuts in the 100 and 200 back while earning three All-County selections.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Weber State's Scott Bamforth has been selected as the Big Sky Conference men's basketball Player of the Week after leading the Wildcats to victories over Utah State and UC Irvine.
Bamforth, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound junior from Albuquerque, N.M., averaged 23 points per game and made 9-of-12 from 3-point land as the Wildcats improved to 3-0 with wins over the Aggies of the Western Athletic Conference and the Anteaters of the Big West.
Bamforth netted a career-high with 28 points, pulled down six rebounds, and tied his career-high with seven 3-pointers in last Tuesday's 73-63 home win over Utah State. He made his first five 3-pointers of the game, and made his first 10 of the season. He finished 7-of-9 from 3-point range.
The All-Conference guard followed that up with 18 points in Saturday's 80-72 win at UC Irvine. Bamforth made 2-of-3 from 3-point range, 8-of-9 from the free-throw line, and also dished out two assists.
This is Bamforth's first career Player of the Week honor.
Northern Arizona's Stallon Saldivar was nominated for the honor after scoring 17 points and adding nine assists in NAU's win over Arizona Christian.
