CU's Danielle Clauson scored a game- and season-high on Tuesday night.
Clauson Carries Concordia Past Northwest in CCC Tournament Opener
PORTLAND, Ore. – Concordia sophomore forward Danielle Clauson erupted for 22 second-half point for a season-high 26-point haul to boost the Cavaliers past Northwest 71-57 in the first round of the Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament.
With the win, Concordia, the top-seed in the tournament, improved to 26-3 on the year while Northwest ended its season with a 9-21 mark. The Cavaliers will host cross-town rival Warner Pacific in the semifinals on Friday, March 27. Fifth-seeded Warner Pacific defeated No. 4 Eastern Oregon 71-57 on the road to advance to the second round.
The final team to make the tournament, the Eagles came out with a 13-4 lead out of the gate with four different players contributing in the scoring column in the first four minutes of play.
Neither team could get much going in the ensuing minutes, but Concordia would record consecutive buckets, more than three minutes apart, to cut the margin to 13-9 at the 12:38 mark.
Concluding with a Jessalyn Jackson conversion on a layup attempt for the Eagles, the squads would spar the next three possessions with alternating buckets to make the score 17-11 with 11:35 remaining.
The Cavaliers would make the Jackson field goal the last point for NU over the next five minutes of play and would hold the Eagles without a basket from the field in over nine minutes of action to create an eight-point advantage. The Eagles would rely on a trio of free throws over that span until Carleigh Newman broke the draught with 2:20 left in the first with a jumper to cut the CU lead to 28-22.
Maryan Razavi and Rebecca Gimeno closed out the half for CU with back-to-back buckets to turn what was at one point a nine-point deficit into a nine-point lead with the score 31-22 at intermission.
The Eagles would not get any closer than seven points in the second half, doing so three times over the final 20 minutes. The three-point shot kept NU close, connecting on 6-of-12 in the second half, including three straight from Rachel Mitchell.
Meanwhile, Clauson took over offensively for CU out of the break with 22 of her game-high 26 points. After not making a trip to the free throw line in the first period, Clauson hit 12-of-14 attempts in the second to pull the Cavs to the 14-point victory.
Each team replicated its shooting in the second half with Northwest making 9-of-28 (32.1 percent) from the field in each period and Concordia firing at a 33.3 percent rate in each half (11-of-33). The teams also matched each other’s totals in the rebounding department with both teams securing 42 caroms.
Mitchell led the Eagles with 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting while Jackson pulled in a game-high 10 rebounds.
Aside from Clauson’s 26-point tally, CU got 16 points from Ann Snodderly and 12 from Rebecca Gimeno.