Angela Gimeno had nine points, eight rebounds and four steals in the Concordia win against Warner Pacific on Friday.
Cavaliers Push Streak to 14 with 65-62 Survival Against Warner Pacific
PORTLAND, Ore.— After giving up 10-point leads in both halves, the Concordia University women’s basketball team held off Warner Pacific College 65-62 for the team’s 14th straight win.
Concordia improved to 14-1 on the season and 7-0 in Cascade Collegiate Conference play while Warner Pacific dropped to 8-8 overall and 4-3 in CCC play.
The Knights connected on the game’s opening basket but would not enjoy the lead long as Concordia responded with a 19-7 run for an early 10-point advantage.
The Knights’ Katie Allen would get Warner Pacific back within four, but the Cavs would return with consecutive baskets by Haley Roth and Ann Snodderly to stake a 30-22 lead. The Knights would fight back to tie the contest at 30 via a Kelsey Mattsen jumper, leading to the two teams trading baskets to settle with a Concordia lead with a 34-32 score at the half.
With 33 seconds remaining, Concordia’s Danielle Clauson gave the Cavs the final basket of the opening period with a for the slim margin heading into the locker room.
Opening up the second, the Cavaliers registered nine of the first 10 points to once again return to a double-digit advantage, but behind nine second-half points by Mattsen and Marissa Towry, the Knights would rally again cutting the deficit to 45-42.
Capped by a three-point shot by Maryam Razavi at the 12:47 mark the Cavs would post seven straight points, but the Knights would return with seven unanswered of their own
en route to taking a 52-53 lead, their first since the opening bucket, with just over six minutes remaining.
CU’s Rebecca Gimeno would immediately answer with a successful drive to the basket and the Cavs would single-handedly make it a two possession game with another jumper the next time down the court for a 61-56 lead with three minutes to play.
Not backing down, the Knights put together six straight points to take a 62-61 lead with 55 seconds play. Razavi would create the response for the Cavs with two of her 10 second-half points for the CU lead 14 seconds later.
On the next possession, a Karissa Boyd turnover with 31 seconds left would turn it into a free throw contest with Razavi getting the first attempt to seal the win. Razavi would miss the front end of a 1-and-1 one, but a key rebound by Clauson would give the Cavs a second chance at the charity stripe, this time sending Rebecca Gimeno to the line where she would connect on both attempts for a three-point lead.
The Knights got two shots at a three-point tying launch in the final five seconds but would see both attempts miss the net to preserve the CU win.
“I thought we kept our composure down the stretch. They (Warner Pacific) made some key plays in key situations, but made some adjustments and our kids handled it pretty well,” Concordia head coach Aaron Christian said. “There are a lot of good teams in this conference and if you don’t put it away when you get a chance the game can go either way. We were fortunate tonight.”
Razavi and Rebecca Gimeno each had 18 points to lead the Cavaliers while Towry paced the Knights with 20 points after shooting 8 of 11 from the field. Warner Pacific outrebounded the Cavs 42-31 and held a 48 percent to 40 percent shooting advantage over the home club, but committed 22 turnovers to 14 for the Cavs.
Concordia returns to action on Jan. 10 when it hosts Cascade College at 5:30 p.m. The Knights travel to Corban College to continue CCC play.