MONMOUTH, Ore. – The entire fourth quarter seemed to be swaying back-and-forth between the two teams and it would come down to the final minutes to decide a winner. After trailing by 11 at the half, the Western Oregon University women's basketball team made a strong push in the second half getting back to tie the game before Simon Fraser held on at the buzzer for the 62-59 Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory Thursday night inside New PE Gym.
"Obviously this isn't the outcome we wanted but I thought we showed a ton of heart tonight and we gave ourselves a chance at the end," head coach Holli Howard-Carpenter said. "Our focus was to defend the three ball and I thought we had a sense of urgency to do that all night. Madi and Ana did a great job defending Jones and as a group we held them under their average and forced them into turnovers."
WOU (7-8, 3-5 GNAC) erased the double-digit lead midway through the fourth quarter to make for an exciting finish. Trailing by eight entering the fourth quarter, the Wolves stormed back opening the final frame with a three-pointer by Tresai McCarver. Casandra White followed with a three of her own to trim the deficit to two. After Simon Fraser (6-9, 2-4 GNAC) made a basket to stop the 6-0 run, WOU ended up turning the extended run into a 10-2 variety with Meadow Aragon hitting a layup and Cali McClave adding a transition layup off a steal to tie the game at 51.
SFU regrouped to score the next five points, but after a free throw by Madisyn Clark and subsequent layup, WOU was right back to within four. Still down by five with 21 seconds to play, McCarver connected on a top-of-the-key triple to cut the deficit to two with 13 seconds to play. Forced to foul, WOU put Jessica Wisotzki on the line and she split the free throws leaving the lead at three. WOU had two looks at a possible tie with White's first attempt just rimming off and then a loose ball battle went back to the Wolves out-of-bounds, but with just 0.4 seconds left. WOU went to Clark for a deep try at a three-pointer, but the shot was blocked to preserve the win for Simon Fraser.
Early on, Simon Fraser had a strong first quarter to build a big lead. WOU took the 5-3 lead two minutes in following a layup by Aragon and free throw by McCarver. The lead remained at two at 7-5 on a jumper by Aragon a minute later. SFU then went on a 9-0 run to take a 14-7 lead. White ended the run with a triple, but another 7-0 run had Simon Fraser holding a 21-10 lead. The teams traded points the remainder of the opening quarter to leave SFU with the 23-12 lead.
WOU came out on fire to start the second quarter with McCarver hitting a layup just nine seconds in. Aragon then added a jumper before a Cali McClave layup had the Wolves back to within five. After SFU pushed the lead back to eight, WOU got back to within six a couple of times with the last coming on a layup by Aragon near the midway point of the half. SFU pushed the lead as high as 13 before two free throws by Aragon closed the half with Simon Fraser leading 36-25.
"Turnovers hurt us again in the first half and we struggled to get on any kind of run. We settled in a bit after the half but just gave them too many second opportunities on the glass," Howard-Carpenter said.
The same start to the second quarter was there to begin the third frame. WOU went on a 9-2 run to cut the deficit down to four just over two minutes into the second half. Cali McClave started the third quarter hitting a triple just 12 seconds in. Clark added a layup and then two free throws before Cali McClave ended the run with a layup.
SFU came back with a 6-0 run to jump the lead back out to 10 near the midway point of the quarter. WOU got as close as six on a three-point-play by Aragon before SFU hit a layup to take an eight-point lead into the final quarter.
Aragon went for 17 points on 7-10 shooting. She added five rebounds, five blocks, two assists and a steal in 28 minutes. McCarver and Cali McClave each added 11 points, with McCarver approaching a double-double with eight rebounds. McCarver also had five assists and three steals. Cali McClave added three rebounds, three assists and two steals. Clark was close to double-figures with eight points. Alexis Wright and White added six points apiece. Amber Winkler added two blocks. WOU went 22-60 (36.7) from the field, 5-23 (21.7) from three and 10-15 (66.7) at the foul line. The Wolves held a slight 34-32 edge on points in the paint and had all six fastbreak points.
Jessica Jones led Simon Fraser with 14 points, along with six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Gemma Cutler tallied 12 points, seven rebounds and two blocks, while Jessica Wisotzki added 11 points. Georgia Swant just missed a double-double with nine points and eight rebounds. SFU went 25-66 (37.9) from the field, 4-20 (20) from three and 8-12 (66.7) at the foul line. Simon Fraser held a 21-8 edge on points off turnovers and a 26-12 advantage on bench points. SFU controlled the glass holding a 46-34 rebounding advantage.
WOU was set to play Western Washington this Saturday, but that game was postponed. The teams will look to make that game up this coming week. An announcement will be posted on wouwolves.com.
