NU Holds on to Beat Cascade, But T-Birds Qualify for CCC Tourney
PORTLAND, Ore. - In a close game where the lead changed hands 11 times, Northwest University outlasted Cascade 72-69 at the Thunderdome tonight.
Despite the loss, the Thunderbirds qualified for their first postseason since the 2002-03 season as 9th place Corban was defeated at Southern Oregon tonight. With Corban's loss, Cascade is assured of the 8th seed.
A spirited T-Bird squad looked to be playing with a purpose in the opening minutes, forging a 10-4 lead early on. The visiting Eagles were not flustered however, and battled back to take a 29-27 lead late in the first half and settled for a 31-31 tie.
Cascade couldn't get much more going in the second half as many open shots from distance rimmed out. NU did their damage in the period from the free throw line, eventually hitting 25 of 33 for the game.
Northwest ground out an 8 point lead with just over a minute remaining, but saw Cascade claw back to within one with :04 left on a Te Awhina Aranui trey. Two free throws from Rachel Travis pushed the lead back out to 3 for NU, and Cascade could not get a shot off before the final buzzer.
Aranui scored 18 and grabbed 21 rebounds for Cascade (13-16, 6-13 CCC) in the loss. Robin Swain (15), Raquel Morin (14), and Amy Russell (13) were also in Double figures.
Brittany Bowsher and Erika Hornyak had 20 points each for Northwest (5-22, 4-15 CCC).