Women's Basketball | 2/4/2010 8:14:02 PM

Box Score [Box score]

LACEY, Wash. - Sara Zahler came off the bench to score a career-high 23 points, but it was not enough to lift the Western Oregon women's basketball team over Saint Martin's, as it fell on the road 80-67, Thursday (Feb. 4).

This was Saint Martin's second win in league play to move to 2-6 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and to 8-11 overall. This was the third straight conference loss for the Wolves, which made them fall to 3-5 in the GNAC and 8-14 on the season.

Zahler had five points in the opening period, but she turned it on in the second half with 18 points, on 6-of-10 shooting. For the game, Zahler went 7-of-12 from the field, 4-of-8 from behind the arc and 5-of-9 at the free throw line. She also tied for the team-lead with seven rebounds.

"(Zahler) is one of the veterans of our team, and we need her experience out there," noted WOU head coach Greg Bruce. "We need her to score to help take the pressure off our younger players."

Western Oregon never led in the game as Saint Martin's scored the first seven points of the game. WOU pulled to within one point at 7-6 but would not get any closer.

"We are not playing with same intelligence on offense, the same intensity on defense, and we are not having hard effort through game like two weeks ago," Bruce said. "We are not playing well enough to win against any GNAC team."

Saint Martin's shot 47-percent from the field (24-of-51) and outrebounded Western Oregon 41-33. They also converted 26 of their 29 free throw attempts in a very sloppy game which featured 45 turnovers and 49 personal fouls.

Dara Zack led Saint Martin's with 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting and seven rebounds. Jamey Gelhar also added 18 points for the Saints. Lorrie Clifford and Katie Torland both reached double-figures for the Wolves, along with Zahler. Torland notched 10 points and seven rebounds, while Clifford racked up 11 points.

"We should be peaking right now not headed in the other direction," continued Bruce. "We have to get back to where we were a few weeks ago to finish strong on the good start we had to league play."

The WOU women's basketball team will finally return home after its five-game road trip to face Central Washington, Saturday (Feb. 6), at 2:00 p.m.

"CWU have been on a roll and are putting up almost 80 points per game," noted Bruce. "We are going to need to put in a good practice on Friday to get going back in the right direction."