EUGENE, Ore. – The Northwest Christian University women’s basketball team swept a season series with Willamette University on Monday night, winning 70-45. The two teams combined for a school-record 73 turnovers, but the Beacons were able to hold the Bearcat offense to just 30% shooting.
Willamette jumped out to a 5-0 start on a pair of field goals, but would go on to hit just two more for the entire first half. NCU responded quickly and efficiently, scoring the next 19 straight points, cruising to a 37-20 lead at the intermission. Hope Williams and Jess Anderson (pictured) had eleven points each in the first half as the Beacons shot 48% from the field and forced 21 Bearcat turnovers.
The Bearcats again jumped out quick after the break, scoring seven straight points to open the second half and climb within ten points. After Liz-Turner Bolton called a timeout to settle her troops, the Beacons rolled up a 19-2 streak to put the game out of reach.
The Beacons (4-4) were led off the bench by Anderson, scoring 18 points as she shot 7-for-11 from the field. Williams added 13 points and a team-high seven rebounds and Katey Monteith came off the pine to score eight points and three steals. Aly Bruns led the team with five assists and Martha Taylor brought home five steals. Northwest Christian also had seven blocked shots in the contest, getting two apiece from Anderson and Jackie Cunningham.
Willamette (1-7) was led by Alex Zennan who came off the bench to score 16 points along with five steals and six turnovers. The Bearcats went deep on Monday night as the starting five accounted for just 16 points combined. Shayna Glynn scored six of those points with five rebounds and Kaileigh Westerman scored six points and a game-high 11 rebounds in a reserve role. Willamette was forced into 40 turnovers in the game, the third highest total for a Beacon opponent in school history. This resulted in 20 steals for NCU.
Northwest Christian will be back in action this weekend as they return to Cascade Collegiate Conference action in Washington, taking on Northwest (6-4) on Friday and Evergreen State (1-6) on Saturday. Both games will tip-off at 7:30 pm.