MONMOUTH, Ore.—Facing a team it lost to by 27 points in December, the Western Oregon University women's basketball team forced overtime before falling to Northwest Nazarene, 72-67, on Thursday night.
With the win Northwest Nazarene, the No. 6-ranked team in the West Region according to the latest D2SIDA Poll, improved to 13-3 on the season and 9-2 in GNAC play. WOU fell to 8-9 overall and 4-7 in conference contests.The Wolves will stay at home to face Central Washington on Jan. 27. Throughout the game, WOU athletics will recognize the school's women's basketball alumni. Opening tip against the Wildcats is set for 7 p.m.
Connecting on six of its first 10 shots, WOU jumped put to a 14-6 start behind early offense by
Savannah Heugly and
Shelby Snook.
Lexi Tubbs drained back-to-back 3-pointers to eventually knot the game at 17-17 and soon pushed a lead of their own to seven points (29-22) with 6:55 to play in the first half.
Converting from beyond the arc, Keyonna Jones sparked a WOU rally to end the half as NNU's advantage dwindled to a single point (34-33) at the break.
Neither team could create separation in the third quarter, but Tubbs opened the fourth with another 3-pointer before free throws by teammate Raquel Jardine made it a 53-47 contest with 6:26 on the clock
Now down seven points (61-54) with under two minutes to play, Western Oregon held the Nighthawks scoreless for the rest of regulation while Heugly and Snook scored on consecutive possessions to cut the deficit to two points with 43 seconds remaining.
After forcing a turnover, the Wolves had a pair of looks at the rim, before
Ali Nelke grabbed an offensive board and put up a jumper in the paint as time expired to send the game to overtime with the score tied, 61-61.
The Wolves scored the opening bucket in the extra session on a Snook jumper, but Collette Gall took over for the Nighthawks with six of NNU's 11 points in the period en route to the five-point win.
"My heart hurts for our team, they played the best team basketball I've seen this year and against a very talented NNU team. We were locked in and executed our game plan on both ends of the floor and I'm extremely proud of the heart we showed tonight," WOU head coach
Holli Howard-Carpenter said.
Tubbs led all scorers with 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting and 4-of-8 from 3-point range.
Heugly led WOU with 18 points while Snook (14) and Jones (12) also reached double figures for the Wolves.
"Everyone stepped up and did their job and that shows on the stat sheet. Everyone had a rebound, nearly every one scored and our assist to turnovers were almost even," Howard-Carpenter said. "It's always tough to swallow a loss when you make more baskets than your opponent but this game should give us confidence going into the next and then into the February grind."
