CU's Mariah Ladd scored 13 points and added seven rebounds in a win against Evergreen tate on Friday night.
Cavs Dominate Late in 68-50 Win over Geoducks
PORTLAND, Ore.— After trailing at the half, Concordia nearly doubled its opponents point total in the second as the Cavaliers defeated Evergreen State 68-50 in Cascade Collegiate Conference women’s basketball action on Friday night.
With the result, Concordia improved to 10-8 overall and 4-4 in CCC play while Evergreen State fell to 6-13 and 2-6 in league contests. Concordia will return to the court on Saturday when it hosts Northwest University at 5:30 p.m. in the Cavalier Gymnasium.
The Geoducks held the Cavs without a field goal for the opening three minutes of the game to grab a quick 4-1 lead only to see the home team reel off 10 straight points, the final four coming from freshman guard Mariah Ladd, to give CU an 11-4 advantage.
With both teams struggling to accumulate points, Evergreen State rallied and eventually reclaimed the lead after a three by Katie Garcin with seven minutes in the half to make the score 16-15. Minutes later, the Geoducks would assert their biggest lead of the game on a Latrina Woods’ jumper for a four-point lead with three minutes showing on the clock. The advantage would bend but not break down the stretch as a Cavalier free throw by Kourtney Craft represented the final point of the period to allow the home side to head to the locker rooms trailing by just a single point with the score resting at 25-24.
The two teams would trade leads through the first seven minutes of the half, with Woods creating one of the final lead changes with a three-point strike for a 39-37 score in favor of the Geoducks with 12:27 to play.
With an assist from Sarah Eischen, Concordia junior Danielle Clauson retaliated with a jumper to tie the game while Eischen would follow with a layup of her own following a Clauson steal. The back-to-back outburst would set up a Cavalier lead that it would not relinquish as CU would eventually finish the bout on a 20-6 run to end with the 18-point rout.
Clauson led the Cavs with 19 points while Ladd finished with a career-best 13 points for her second double-digit scoring performance in the last three games. Craft, a 5-foot-4 guard, rounded up a game-high 10 rebounds which also set a career best.
Woods led Evergreen State with a game-high 23 points after shooting 7 of 12 from the field. Woods also connected on 8 of 10 from the free throw line, en route to accounting for eight of the team’s 10 free throw makes as the rest of the team converted just 2 of 10 from the charity stripe.
“I thought our players stepped up and played with heart and with passion which was great to see on the court,” CU head coach Aaron Christian said. “On defense, we were able to block out and secured defensive rebounds and on offense we made some clutch free throws to put the game out of reach.”
All eight players that saw action for Concordia buried at least two free throws as the team thrived at the line by hitting 29 of 36 for an 80.6 percent rate. Ann Snodderly, Megan Padilla and Craft each made five free throws while Jackie Cannon was a perfect 4 of 4.
After shooting 30.4 percent from the floor in the first, CU responded with a 63.2 percent rate in the second to finish at 45.3 percent compared to just 28.1 percent for the Geoducks.