Women's Basketball | 1/8/2009 12:07:04 PM

Box Score MONMOUTH, Ore. - The Western Oregon University women's basketball team scored 14 of its final 16 points from the free throw line to seal a 72-68 victory over Alaska Fairbanks, Thursday, Jan. 8.

The win moves the Wolves to 1-0 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and evens their record at 6-6 on the season. The loss dropped the Nanooks to 0-1 in conference and to 5-5 this season.

"This was a big win as we are trying to build this women's basketball program," explained WOU head coach Greg Bruce. "We emphasized the importance of this game to our team and they worked very hard over the past seven or eight days preparing for Alaska Fairbanks."

Danielle Albus led Western Oregon with 19 points. She went 6-of-11 from the floor and had three steals which led directly to lay-ups.

"Albus had a great game and was a disruptive defensive force all night," noted Bruce. "She has great untapped potential and if we can just control her we think we can have something special."

Katie Torland notched a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds and Erika Wilson came off the bench with a team-high three assists. Other double-figure scorers for the Wolves include AJ Hawk with 12 points and Shayla Corder with 10.

Alaska Fairbanks came back from an eight-point halftime deficit with a 15-0 run to take the lead at 59-54. The Wolves then answered with an 18-9 to close the game in which 14 of the 18 points came from the charity stripe. Western Oregon hit its first 19 attempts from the line and made 24-of-28 on the evening.

"When we fell behind 59-54 our players stepped up on defense and were able to get the key stops, the defensive rebounds and hit their free throws," commented Bruce.

Western Oregon shot just 25.9 percent from the field in the second half but it scored over half its points (15-of-29) in the period from the free throw line as it went 15-of-19 from there in the second half.

Alaska Fairbanks opened the game on a 16-7 run as it hit eight of its first nine shots. Western Oregon then followed with an 18-6 run to take the lead at 25-22. The Wolves would continue to outscore the Nanooks in the half and take a 43-35 lead into the locker room. After its initial 8-of-9 onslaught, UAF went just 7-of-19 on its field goal attempts while WOU shot 57.7 percent (15-26) from the field. In the half, Albus was a perfect 4-of-4 from the field including 2-of-2 from three-point range to lead WOU with 11 points. Both teams made 15 field goals in the half including four three-pointers but Western Oregon outscored Alaska Fairbanks 9-to-1 at the line to hold the eight-point halftime lead.

"Their kids were well prepared and they made adjustments to stay with us after we were able to get into transition on them early in the game," said Bruce. "We are not where we need to be offensively. We are still not very good in the half-court offense and we can get impatient, we have to get tougher."

The Western Oregon women's basketball team will now prepare to host the No. 2 team in the country, Alaska Anchorage, Saturday, Jan. 10, at 5:15 p.m., in the second game of its 2009 GNAC season.