Women's Basketball | 1/17/2009 12:00:53 PM
Box Score BILLINGS, Mont. - The Western Oregon women's basketball team closed out the game on a 12-5 run to earn a conference road win at Montana State Billings 68-64, Saturday, Jan. 17.
The Wolves captured their first Great Northwest Athletic Conference road victory of the season as it evened its record at 2-2 in the GNAC and moved to 7-8 on the season. The loss drops the Yellowjackets to 10-5 overall and 2-2 in conference.
Katie Torland led four WOU players in double-figures with 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting to go along with six rebounds. Freshman guard Sammy Nordstrom came off the bench to grab a team-best 10 rebounds including five on the offensive glass. Point guard Danielle Albus scored 14 points to go along with five assists and just one turnover.
On the game the Wolves shot 52 percent from the floor (26-50) while holding the Yellowjackets to a 40.8 percent clip (20-49). Western Oregon also outrebounded MSUB 34 to 27 and held the nation's fourth-leading scorer Alira Carpenter to just 16 points, 8.5 points below her season average.
"We talked about it before the game about circling the wagons here," said head coach Greg Bruce. "We had to limit their second chances, defend the entire game and execute, and our women did that today. This was a huge win for our program."
Western Oregon jumped out to a 35-28 lead at the half but MSUB went on a 21-12 run to take back the lead at 49-47 with 9:24 remaining. The Yellowjackets were still up three points at 59-56 with 4:46 left but the Wolves scored 12 of the last 17 points in the game for the road victory.
"When you are trying to build a program getting conference wins on the road are critical," continued Bruce. "We were able to get wins last season at Western Washington and Central Washington, but this win is the biggest we have had since I have been at Western Oregon."
The Western Oregon women's basketball team will now return home to face Saint Martin's Thursday, Jan. 22, at 5:15 p.m.
