PORTLAND, Ore. – In its next-to-last exhibition game of the season, Western Oregon University's women's basketball team nearly upset the University of Portland before falling 70-60 Wednesday night inside the Chiles Center.
Dana Goularte led all players with 25 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field to go along with an 11-for-13 performance at the free throw line.
Katie Goddard also scored in double figures with 13 points, while
Jordan Mottershaw and
Michelle Bromagem added eight and vie points, respectively. On the boards, Goularte grabbed a team-high seven rebounds with Mottershaw handing out a game-high tying three assists for the Wolves.
In the opening minute of the game, Western Oregon connected on its first two shots en route to securing a 5-0 lead on a lay-up by Goddard with 19:22 on the clock. Over the next four minutes, Portland used an 11-0 run in order to secure a six-point lead (11-5) with 15:37 left in the first half. The Wolves would cut the Pilots' lead to 11-7 on Goularte's sixth and seventh points of the night before Portland used a 9-2 run to pull ahead by 11 points (20-9) with 12:08 remaining. Western Oregon would get the Pilots' lead down to five points (24-19) on a fast break jumper by Goddard with just over eight minutes left in the first half. Over the next seven minutes, Portland used a 15-3 run en route to securing a 39-22 lead with 1:36 on the clock. The Wolves would score the final three points of the first half, as WOU went into halftime trailing 39-25.
The second half would begin with Portland scoring the opening four points to increase its lead to 18 points (43-25) with 18:32 left in the game. Over the next three minutes, Western Oregon used an 11-4 run to pull within 11 points (47-36) following back-to-back free throws by
Kelsey Henry with just under 16 minutes on the clock. The host Pilots would push their lead back to 17 points (56-39) before Western Oregon used a 21-12 run over a span of 12 minutes to get within eight points (68-60) following a free throw by Goddard with 47 seconds left. Portland would score the game's final two points on a pair of free throws, as Western Oregon closed out its second exhibition game of the season falling to the Pilots by the final score of 70-60.
Portland was led offensively by Cassandra Brown and Kari Luttinen with 15 points each, while Cassandra Thompson added 13 points for the Pilots. On the boards, Thompson and Ashley Gray pulled down a game-high tying eight rebounds each to go along with a three-assist performance by Hannah Mattson.
As a team, Western Oregon combined to shoot 16-for-51 (31.4%) from the field that included a 4-for-16 (25.0%) showing from beyond the three-point line and a 24-for-30 (80.0%) performance at the free throw line. On the other hand, Portland was a combined 28-for-60 (46.7%) from the field, 3-of-16 (18,8%) from long distance, and 11-of-19 (57.9%) at the charity stripe.
Western Oregon will close out the exhibition portion of its schedule on Sunday, November 9, against nationally-ranked Oregon State beginning at 2:00 p.m. inside Gill Coliseum in Corvallis.
