EUGENE, Ore. – The Eastern Oregon University women’s basketball team pulled away late in the second half to claim a 70-49 win over Northwest Christian University in Cascade Collegiate Conference action on Friday night. The Mounties, ranked No. 9 in the latest NAIA national coaches poll, remain undefeated in CCC action.
The Beacons kept things close for much of the evening, battling through eight first half-lead changes before EOU walked into the locker room with a 31-30 halftime lead. The Mounties never trailed in the second half and were only ahead by two points, 48-46 with 8:18 to play. Back-to-back three-pointers from Kelsea Hurliman and Brooke Randall (pictured) soon launched the visitors onto a 12-0 run to seemingly take the air out of NCU’s tires.
“We played with them and we played hard,” said head coach Liz Turner-Bolton. “We executed our game plan for about 34 minutes. Unfortunately, they outplayed us towards the end and against that caliber of an opponent that is something you just can’t allow.”
Eastern Oregon (16-2, 7-0 CCC) was led by Randall, scoring 19 points and seven assists. Kelsea Hurliman added 16 points, eight rebounds, and four assists while Jorie Freeman came off the bench to score 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting. EOU shot 44% from the field and hit six three-pointers while out-rebounding the Beacons, 36-26.
NCU (10-7, 3-3) was led by Kelsey Atkins, scoring 15 points as she shot 6-for-9 from the field. The senior guard led all players with four steals. Turner-Bolton said, “Kelsey did a great job tonight being more aggressive and that is something that we need her to do.”
Lindsey Shearer scored ten points on the night, giving her 1005 for her career. She became just the third player in school history to cross the 1000-point plateau.
The Beacons will return to action on Saturday night, playing host to No. 22 College of Idaho at 5:30 pm. Eastern Oregon will travel to Salem to take on Corban on Saturday, facing a Warrior team that is winless in conference action but took the Coyotes to overtime on Friday evening.