One night after scoring 30 points, Amy Patton had an even better performance for the NAU women's basketball team Saturday night against Weber State.
Patton, a true freshman from Tempe, hit a buzzer-beater to lift the Lumberjacks to a thrilling 63-62 win over Weber State for their first Big Sky Conference win of the season. Patton finished with 31 points, a new career high and also added 10 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season.
"It was an exciting basketball game," coach Laurie Kelly said. "We have been in a lot of these games this season where we got it down to single digits or one or two possessions. It feels great to finally have it come out on our end in a positive way."
NAU (3-13, 1-2 Big Sky) has struggled early in games trailing at the half in 12 of its 16 games.
On Saturday, the Lumberjacks entered the break down six points, but responded in the second half shooting 50 percent from the field. Patton scored 18 of her game-high 31 points on 8 of 14 shooting in the second half.
"We were down early right away and it seemed like we had no energy," Kelly said. "We did same thing [Friday] night against Idaho State, but tonight we were able to make plays. We shot the ball a lot better in the second half and we played better team basketball.
"Rebounding has been a crucial thing for us all year and tonight we won on the glass 43-30. It is hard to win [in Ogden]. Weber State is a good basketball team."
With under a minute to play, Weber State's Ali Thorderson put the Wildcats up 62-61. After an NAU turnover, the Lumberjacks sent senior point guard Tonya Schnibbe to the free-throw line to potentially put Weber State up three. Schnibbe missed both free-throws giving NAU a chance for a last second shot. Patton answered the call and hit the game-winner as time expired.
"The team was so happy," Kelly said. "I said to them it feels great to win, but we have to build off this. We need to have other people stepping up."
Junior forward Lauren Hoisington was the only other Lumberjack in double figures totaling 13 points.
The Lumberjacks return to Flagstaff for the first time since Dec. 10 with a pair of Big Sky contests. NAU will play Eastern Washington on Thursday and Portland State on Saturday, Jan. 16 at the Walkup Skydome. Both games are set for 6:35 p.m. tip-offs.
