Women's Basketball | 2/16/2012 10:06:00 PM

Box Score [Box score]

MONMOUTH, Ore. - Lorrie Clifford had a career-high 28 points and the Western Oregon women's basketball team scored a season-best 90 points to take down Alaska Fairbanks, 90-81 on Thursday, Feb. 16.

Clifford hit 9-of-14 shots from the field and all eight free throw attempts to lead the Wolves to their third straight home win. WOU also got double figure efforts from Jade Haas (15 points), Dana Goularte (11) and Jacqee Jasinski (10). Jasinski and Elise Miller both dished out five assists as Western Oregon had an assist on 23 of their 33 baskets. The Wolves finished the game shooting 57 percent while holding UAF to 38 percent from the field.

"Lorrie Clifford had a very good night tonight but I thought we passed the ball very crisply," said Western Oregon head coach Greg Bruce. "We did some very nice things offensively tonight."

Western Oregon never trailed after the 13:43 mark in the first half but Alaska Fairbanks kept it interesting throughout the contest. They cut the lead to one multiple times in the first half but each time WOU answered with a scoring spurt including scoring the final five points of the half to take a 49-41 lead into the locker room.

In the second half, WOU would build its lead to as many as 14 on a three-pointer by Rylee Peterson (8:29) but the Nanooks fought back to make it a five point game with 41 seconds left. The Wolves then broke the Nanooks' press on back-to-back possessions with layups by Haas and Clifford to seal the game.

"Tonight it looked like we had the game in hand but every time we thought we did they made a run at us, and it was scary," said Bruce. "After we beat Seattle Pacific our team realized that if we just come out and play hard we can play with the teams in this league."

Alaska Fairbanks was led by Nicole Bozek with 25 points. Bozek made 15 of 16 free throws. UAF also got 19 points from Nicole Hartzog, and 16 points and six steals from Autumn Green.

The Wolves will now prepare to welcome in No. 11 Alaska Anchorage on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 7:00 p.m. This will also be Senior Night for three WOU seniors, but the focus for coach Bruce and the women is on UAA and the games ahead.

"We are down two games right now with three games left in the regular season, so we must beat Alaska Anchorage here on Saturday," Bruce explained. "We can't depend on Northwest Nazarene losing all their games. But Alaska Anchorage is no slouch. We are going to have to play better defense than we did tonight to hang in there with them."