PORTLAND, Ore.—After trailing for the entire first half, Western Oregon University rallied with a big third quarter to defeat Concordia University, 65-62, on Tuesday night.
With the win, Western Oregon (10-13, 6-11 GNAC) keeps its slim GNAC postseason chance alive. Concordia fell to 13-12 overall and 7-10 in conference play. The Cavaliers now trail Western Washington by a half game for the sixth and final GNAC playoff spot.
WOU, meanwhile, will be two games back of the Vikings entering their weekend matchup at MSU Billings. With the season sweep in hand against the Cavaliers, the Wolves will hold a tiebreaker over Concordia.
Concordia scored the opening four points of the game and quickly jumped out to a 12-5 lead on a Danielle Hartzog jumper in the first quarter.
A Keyonna Jones layup early in the second cut the deficit to three (16-13) but using an 11-to-2 edge in offensive rebounds in the first half, CU managed to hold off an additional rally by the Wolves for a 30-26 edge at the break.
Charged up after the intermission, the Wolves scored the first seven points of the third quarter to capture their first lead of the game.
Moving to the fourth, the Cavs bounced back for a momentary lead at 54-53, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Keyonna Jones provided the Wolves the lead that would stand until the final buzzer.
Hartzog found hoop for a basket with 54 seconds left to clip the gap to a single point where the Cavs were forced to foul.
Shelby Snook stepped up for a pair of clutch free throw to make it a three-point spread. The sequence was then repeated with another Hartzog layup followed by another successful trip to the line by Snook.
"We flat-out battled tonight. The first half wasn't pretty but we had good focus and fought through some adversity in the second," WOU head coach
Holli Howard-Carpenter said. "We took care of the ball and got good possessions which made a big difference. Converting from the free throw line late was huge as well."
The Cavs managed a last-second 3-point chance for the tie, but could not generate a decent look against the WOU defense.
Hitting 9-of-10 from the line, Snook led all scorers with 20 points. Jones added 13 while
Sydney Azorr (11 points) and
Savannah Heugly (10 points) also reached double figures. Hartzog led all CU players with an 18-point night.
"It was a great team win with lots of players contributing. Shelby was on mission in the second half and really took over for a stretch and we need that the next three games" Howard-Carpenter said. "Keyonna hit some huge 3s that gave us some much needed breathing room. We need to continue to play with this fire and fight to finish out the season."
Western Oregon will turn around to play at Montana State Billings on Saturday, Feb. 17, before closing out the regular season next week at Seattle Pacific on Feb. 22 and Saint Martin's on Feb. 24.
