Despite a furious comeback attempt in the second half, the NAU women's basketball team fell to UNLV on Tuesday, 60-58, at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas.
The Lumberjacks trailed by as many as 21 points in the second half before starting on the comeback trail.
Down 46-25 with 17:28 left in the game, NAU (2-11) went on an 18-4 run to cut the UNLV (7-6) lead to seven with 8:34 remaining.
The Jacks eventually got the lead down to five points.
With under a minute to play, freshman guard Amy Patton hit a 3-point shot to make it a one-possession game with NAU trailing by three.
UNLV's Mia Bell missed two free throws on the ensuing possession and the Lumberjacks had a shot for the win but couldn't hit it and fell by two.
The Lumberjacks limited UNLV to just 20 second half points and closed the game on a 10-2 run.
"We did everything we needed to do to win the game except make shots," Jacks coach Laurie Kelly said. "We had great looks that did not go in. We did so many good things in this game. In the end, it came down to missed shots."
Junior forward Lauren Hoisington, a Las Vegas native, turned in a solid homecoming performance with a game-high 13 points on 5 of 12 shooting. She was a perfect 3 of 3 at the free-throw line and added four rebounds.
Patton added 12 points and eight rebounds, but shot just 5 of 21 from the field in her 35 minutes of action.
The Lumberjacks continued to rebound well on the offensive glass.
NAU totaled 26 offensive rebounds compared to UNLV's 13. Freshman guard Tyler Stephens-Jenkins recorded her first career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds including eight offensive rebounds.
Sophomore forward Katie Pratt came off the bench and totaled 11 rebounds with seven on the offensive end.
"I very much believe in this team and do not think our record is indicative of what our team can be," Kelly said. "We need to get in the gym and shoot the ball and work on our game. We are four days away from tipping off in Big Sky play and then everyone is back to 0-0."
The Lumberjacks will open Big Sky Conference play at Northern Colorado on Saturday at 7:05 p.m.
