CU's Rebecca Gimeno led the Cavs with 17 points after shooting 6-of-8 from the field on Friday night.
Cavs Hold Off Mountaineers Before Battle with C of I
PORTLAND, Ore. –The Concordia women’s basketball team took as much as a 20-point lead in the second half but had to withstand a pesky Eastern Oregon team to post a 72-64 home win on Saturday night.
With the win, Concordia improved to 21-2 on the season and 14-1 in the Cascade Collegiate Conference. Concordia will host CCC leading The College of Idaho (23-2, 14-1 CCC) tomorrow inside the Cavalier Gymnasium.
Eastern Oregon dropped to 14-8 on the year and 9-6 in CCC play for fourth play in the league. The Mountaineers will travel to face Corban College on Feb. 7.
CU’s Danielle Clauson powered the Cavs to a 27-17 lead with eight minutes to play in the first half. Clauson posted 12 first-half points, including 10 of the teams first 14 points. Concordia would extend its lead to 13 on a pair of occasions in the opening period but the Mountaineers sunk the final two baskets of the half to cut the margin to nine with the score 39-30 entering intermission.
Coming out of the gate in the second, Concordia unleashed a 20-9 run to up its advantage to 20 with the score 59-39 with just under 11 minutes to play. The momentum would stop there as EOU would slowly cut into the Cavalier lead. Paced by seven points each by Kyle Miller and Ashlee Michelson in the second half, the Mountaineers would outscore 25-13 the rest of the way, eventually moving to within six with 22 seconds left to play.
The effort would be too little too late as Rebecca Gimeno iced the affair with three free throws in the waning moments to give the Cavs the 72-64 victory.
“Anji (Weissenfluh) does a great job and has their team prepared every time out,” Concordia head coach Aaron Christian said. “It was a hard-fought battle for a solid win at home. Now we have got to be ready to get after it again tomorrow. C of I has good depth and they like to press. We will have to be ready to compete and play a full 40 minutes.”
Gimeno led the Cavs with 17 points, tying her for the game-high with EOU’s Brianna Smith. Clauson added 16 points while Ann Snodderly fell one rebound shy of a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds. Snodderly also added six blocks.
After shooting 63 percent from the floor in the first half, CU fired at a 50 percent rate in the second. EOU improved from 36 to 43 percent from eth first to the second period. The Mountaineers outrebounded the Cavs 37-28 but turned the ball over on 20 occasions compared to 15 for their counterparts.