SALEM, Ore. – It was a dominant second half for the Western Oregon University women's basketball team on Sunday afternoon at Willamette. The Wolves outscored the Bearcats 36-13 over the final 20 minutes, while shooting over 55 percent from the field in rolling to the 72-39 victory at the Cone Field House.
In what was a reversal from the second half against Hawaii Pacific, WOU (1-1) held WU (2-1) to just 5-27 shooting in the second half. The Wolves put the finishing touches on the game with a 24-6 fourth quarter.
"This was a great team win, everyone brought great energy and contributed in some way. I'm really proud of how hard we played for forty minutes. We stayed locked in and made some good adjustments in the second half defensively," head coach Holli Howard-Carpenter said. "Offensively I thought we shared the ball well and really got our transition game going in the second half. Alexis came in and was a force for us inside. Ana did a little bit of everything for us and really helped get our transition going. It's nice to finally have a bigger rotation. We're able to stay intense regardless who is in the game."
Several players put together big games led by Meadow Aragon's game-high 16 points, while adding five blocks and four rebounds. Alexis Wright tallied 12 points in just 16 minutes, while grabbing five rebounds. Tresai McCarver recorded nine points and four rebounds, while Ana McClave collected a team-high six rebounds and added seven points.
WOU shot well from the field for the game connecting on 31-56 (55.4), but shot especially well in quarters two and four where they made over 70 percent. The Wolves closed the final 10 minutes going 10-13 from the field. The Wolves added a 4-9 (44.4) effort from three and went a perfect 6-6 at the foul line. WOU dominated in bench points (33-18) and points in the paint (44-20).
With the game tied at four a few minutes into the first quarter, WOU went on a 6-0 run with Aragon hitting two free throws, along with a layup and Ana McClave closing the run with a layup for the 10-4 lead. After the Wolves stretched the lead out to seven, Willamette closed the quarter strong trimming the lead back to three.
After the Bearcats took the lead early in the second quarter, WOU put together a 7-0 run and never looked back. Wright started the rally with a layup and after Caitlin Wheeler dialed long distance, Wright closed the run with a layup at the 4:56 mark for the 24-18 lead.
The Bearcats made a push to get back to within four a few times when WOU finished out the final minutes of the first half on a 6-0 run with Aragon, Kaelin Williams-Kennedy and McCarver all tallying points for a 36-26 lead at halftime.
It was all WOU over the first five-plus minutes of the third quarter with the Wolves scoring the first 10 points and pushing the lead out to 20. Aragon scored the first four points and after a jumper by McCarver, Wright closed the run with four straight points to move WOU out to a 46-26 lead. Willamette didn't score until 4:11 remaining in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter had a similar feel to it. WOU tallied the first eight points to stretch the lead out to 23. Cali McClave hit back-to-back layups and after Kylee Arzner connected on a layup, Cali McClave closed the run with two from the line for a 56-33 lead.
Willamette posted their first points of the fourth quarter nearly two minutes in and then WOU put the finishing touches on the game with a 14-0 run. Aragon started the final big scoring run with a layup. Princy Paaluhi-Caulk added a jumper, Averi Young hit a jumper and after Ana McClave scored five straight points, a Casandra White three-pointer with 1:46 remaining closed out the run and had the WOU lead out to 35 at 70-35.
WOU limited the Bearcats to 17-57 (29.8) from the field, 1-7 (14.3) from three and 4-8 (50) from the foul line. The defense also forced 16 turnovers. Carolyn Ho led the way for Willamette with 11 points.
The Wolves now return home to host a four-team tournament inside New PE Gym this Friday and Saturday. Chico State, Sonoma State and Saint Martin's will join the Wolves in the tournament this week. There will be two games played each day, starting on Friday at 2 p.m. with Saint Martin's against Sonoma State. WOU will close the day against Chico State starting at 4:15 p.m. On Saturday, Saint Martin's will face Chico State at 12 p.m. and then WOU closes the day versus Sonoma State at 2:15 p.m. Tickets are available for all four games and can be found here.
