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In the case of the Northern Arizona University Lumberjacks and their pursuit of Miki'ala Maio, the third time really did prove to be a charm.

After denying NAU out of both high school and junior college, the 2017 Kamehameha graduate from Nanakuli finally found her way to the Flagstaff, Arizona campus in August.

It's as if she's been there forever.

"I thought I was going to redshirt this year, but obviously everything changed with COVID," said Maio, who played last season at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The rest of her new teammates had already been on campus since June in preparation for a planned international trip to Costa Rica over the summer. The trip was obviously cancelled due to the pandemic, but Maio nonetheless made the most of the situation.

"Just being out there that early I was able to get my conditioning under me," she said of adjusting to the NAU campus that sits at an elevation of 6,950 feet.

But the benefits went beyond just the atmospheric variety and a long way for camaraderie.

"I got to know the girls a little bit more on and off the court and that helped us with our team chemistry on it and then my transition from being with the subs to being with the starting five, it was a lot easier than I thought just because our team is very accepting and open to different people on our team, so it was really just an easy transition coming from my past school at the University of Nevada, just to be in this new system," Maio said.

Since she received approval from the NCAA of a waiver to play this season on Nov. 29, Maio has started all seven games she has played in. The 5-foot-9 senior guard is averaging 10.9 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game, while shooting 40 percent from the field.

"I feel like I could be more consistent in my percentages and my shooting on the floor, but I mean, I still feel like she's given me a lot of the leadership role," Maio said of Lumberjacks fourth-year coach Loree Payne. "Coach likes to say that I'm like the calming presence on the floor, the person that is going to bring girls together after a play and just tell them what's what."

Despite being a first-year player for NAU, Payne has thrust Maio into a lead role on the team, which sits just fine with the 2017 ILH Division I MVP.

"Yeah, definitely. Just being a senior, obviously I should know more things about the game than some of these freshmen and coach tries to give me more of that leadership and the responsibility of holding myself and other people accountable on the floor and being a voice that our team needs," Maio said. "And obviously it's still my first year so I'm still working on transitioning her words to our teammates on the court, but so far she's definitely given our seniors that leadership role."

Maio was not cleared by the NCAA in time for the season-opener at UNLV on Nov. 25, but is averaging over 32 minutes a game of playing time, which has helped fill the void of senior forward Khiarica Rasheed — the Preseason Player of the Year in the Big Sky Conference — who missed the first five games of the season due to injury.

"We've kind of had some injuries, but coach kind of likes to the keep the starters in — I think our starters actually average the most minutes across Big Sky — but she kind of just does that because we get to play freely in the system, so she just lets us play, which is really nice, honestly," said Maio, one of five Lumberjacks averaging at least 32 minutes per game.

NAU is 5-3 on the season and 3-1 in the Big Sky. Its' two non-conference losses were both on the road: at No. 7 Arizona (76-63 on Nov. 29) and at Grand Canyon (66-58 on Dec. 9).

Maio said the GCU loss revealed a team weakness against pressure defense — as evidenced by the Lumberjacks' 25 turnovers — and the defeat at the hands of the Wildcats highlighted a lack of effort on the glass.

"Those are obviously things that we're still working on — handling pressure and then crashing hard offensively and then boxing out — but those were big things that stood out to us, especially in those games," Maio detailed.

(Q3 | 0:29) | NAU 44 - Idaho 50

With a bucket from @miki_ballah, we are down by just SIX heading into the last ten minutes. #NAUStrong ⚒🌲💪 #BigSkyWBB pic.twitter.com/ek8KyrCkwV

— NAU Women's Basketball (@NAU_WBB) January 2, 2021

The team's only blemish in league play so far was a 66-59 loss to Idaho at home Saturday night. That took place just two nights after an 84-62 win over the Vandals, who were picked to finish first in the Preseason Big Sky Media Poll and tied for first in the Coaches Poll.

"I think our energy was a little low that game — the second game compared to the first game — which is, I mean, something that we need to be able to control better," Maio said. "You know coming into that game it starts with that practice the previous day. We weren't focused in our adjustments with Idaho and they were obviously hyped up to play us that second day because of how we played them the first, so I think our energy just didn't match theirs and it obviously showed. In the fourth quarter we didn't have the legs to go like we normally did and even though we made a run to come back, it wasn't enough."

Maio logged a season-high 36 minutes in Saturday's loss. She had 11 points — for her fifth double-digit scoring game — with four rebounds, three assists, two steals. Maio's best all-around game came in an 83-75 win over UTEP on Dec. 17 in which she recorded 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field, five assists, three rebounds and a steal. She had 14 points on 7-of-14 shooting with four boards four steals and an assist in an 89-60 win at Eastern Washington to open conference play back on Dec. 5.

"The season's been going well so far. I think we definitely dropped some games that we felt like we could have done better in, but I mean, that's every team, but yeah, I think we're getting off to a pretty smooth start. Our team has just started rolling and learning each other's tendencies, chemistry and building," said Maio, who earned First Team All-Hawaii honors as a senior at Kamehameha.

It was back in high school that NAU first sought the services of Maio, but the timing just wasn't right and instead of signing with the Lumberjacks, she opted for the junior college route instead.

"They actually offered me after I committed to Salt Lake Community College. At that time I felt like my commitment to Salt Lake was something that I didn't want to go back on," Maio explained.

During her two-year stay at SLCC, Maio helped the Bruins win 51 games. She averaged 12.0 points and 4.5 rebounds there and as a sophomore, was named Region 18 MVP and an NJCAA Second Team All-American.

NAU came knocking again.

"And I turned them down again," Maio laughed.

Instead, she signed with Nevada, where she played in 28 games, including 12 starts. After averaging 5.9 points and 2.1 rebounds per game there, she became one of a half-dozen Wolf Pack players to transfer out of the program after last season.

"That whole situation with Nevada happened and it was just not the place for me to be in," said Maio, who then recalled a phone call she had with NAU assistant Kellee Barney where the proverbial aligning of the stars occurred.

"It was interesting. The first conversation that I had with coach K, I could already feel that warm feeling and you know, us Hawaiians, it's a lot off of feeling, off of vibes and so I got that kind of good vibes from them and there's a lot of Hawaii kids that actually go to NAU and they were like, ‘Oh, you're going to love it out there,' " Maio said.

That may have been true, but to be sure, Hawaii, it is not.

"It's like the opposite of Hawaii, let me tell you, but it's still a beautiful city," Maio expressed. "The people are so nice, it's a small town so you know everybody's business (laughs), but it's still nice — different from home."

Although she's a long way from home, Maio never forgets where she is from or whom she represents.

"That's a really big thing for me. I actually have a wristband that says, ‘he Hawaii, ke a mau a mau,' which means, ‘I am Hawaiian, now and forever.' I wear that wristband every day — proud. I put it on my water bottle for games so that every time I grab water I'm still thinking about my family and my home and what I'm representing," said Maio, a three-time ILH all-star and two-time All-Hawaii selection.

She added, "In everything that I do I just try to do it with my best effort and with all my teachings that my teachers taught me and my family has taught me and I think it's a really big, really big deal for me coming from Hawaii and representing Nanakuli."

Maio said that it was after she had left Nevada and was home over the summer that she starting seeing things in a new light.

"It just made appreciate things that I didn't think to appreciate before, like being able to have a roof over my head, having a family that's going to provide meals for me, feeling their love every day," said Maio, who has not been home since August.

"It's just been a lot of FaceTime calls and video chats with my family and it's been tough though, I must say. I'm sure COVID has been tough on everybody, but especially I think student-athletes, our mental health has definitely been challenged this year a lot more than I thought it would be," Maio said.

She's getting through it by "staying grounded in my roots, in my family.

"Even in the things that I learned from Kamehameha, like I'm proud to be Hawaiian, I'm proud to be representing my culture and my lahui out here, so those are the things that just keep me going."

That and her passion for basketball.

Maio is on schedule to graduate with a degree in education next spring and hopes to one day become a teacher — "maybe at Kamehameha, maybe somewhere out here, it's still up in the air" — but not before her time on the hardwood is up.

"First I want to become a coach. I feel like with everything that I've learned and my take from the game, I feel like it would be good to pass that on to my players as well, so first and foremost is to be a coach and maybe even play overseas if I can, but I feel like the end goal would be to be a teacher," Maio stated.

With the NCAA's blanket waiver granting an additional year of eligibility for all winter sports student-athletes due to impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Maio said she fully intends to return to the team next season.

But for now, she's fully focused on the season at hand and NAU's next test: a pair of road games at Idaho State this weekend. The Bengals (6-1, 4-0) were picked ahead of the Lumberjacks in both the Preseason Big Sky Media (second) and Coaches (tied for first) polls. NAU was tabbed for a third-place finish in both polls.

"I mean, obviously the rankings mean something to the media and stuff. To us, we just try to take it like, ‘Well, they're not number one until they prove it,' kind of a thing," Maio said. "We really believe that the group that we have this year, we're special and we can make some big moves, so we're just trying to prove ourselves and get better every game to show people that we are that dominant team that showed against Idaho in that first game."

Maio and the Lumberjacks play at Idaho State Thursday night and Saturday afternoon before returning home for a pair of games against Montana next weekend.