Wolves Rally Falls Short to Eagles
Morgan Doyle, Sports Information Assistant
College Place, WASH. The Wolves battled against the Eagles this evening and lost a tough battle, 77-67.
The Eagles took a quick 5-0 lead in the opening minute of the game. With eight minutes left a layup from Christina Thermidor put the Wolves on the board, 5-2. Thermidor followed with consecutive layups for Walla Walla making it a one-point game of 7-6. Layups from Northwest's Emily Henderson and Miranda Langenhorst ensured the Wolves were not close for long, taking the lead to 11-6. Carolina Montes made a jumper with five minutes left, to cut the lead the three points. Northwest continued to work in the ball inside and the score was 20-9 with three minutes left in the quarter. Walla Walla closed the gap in the last two minutes of the game with a three-pointer from Carolina Montes, a jumper by Emily Downs and a layup from Sarah Halversen at the buzzer but the Eagles had the lead going into the second quarter 22-16.
Northwest stretched the lead to nine points to begin the second quarter. With seven minutes left Montes had a layup for Walla Walla, and to cut the lead the seven. The Eagles scored fifteen points over the final three minutes to stretch their lead past 20 points, 43-21. A three-pointer from Garcia followed by a layup by Alyssa Blankenship brought the Wolves to a seventeen point deficit of 43-26. The Wolves began to gain momentum going into the second half down 45-32.
With nine minutes left in the third quarter Montes had a three-pointer for the Wolves and the Eagles was cut to ten, 45-35. A layup from Garcia brought cut the lead to single digits, 45-37, with eight and a half minutes left. Back to back three-pointers from Montes brought the Wolves within five points, 48-43 Eagles. Northwest went on a four-point run with layups from Mariah Stacona and Lagenhorst and the team was up 52-43 with five minutes left. The court was stale until the last two minutes on the clock when Alyssa Blankenship had a layup for Walla Walla, 54-47. A layup from Lagenhorst took the Eagles into the fourth quarter up 57-49.
Stacona started the fourth quarter with a three-pointer for Northwest to once again to go up doube digits, 60-49. Halversen had consecutive layups with seven minutes left and Walla Walla was only down by nine, 62-55. With six minutes left Blankenship had a momentous three-pointer for the Wolves that brought the team within three points 62-59. Stacona quickly followed with a jumper, and the score remained 64-59 until Montes had free-throws for Walla Walla making the score 64-61 with four minutes left in the game. A jumper from Emily Downs put the Wolves within three points, 66-63 with just under four minutes left. The three-point gap quickly escalated into a nine-point lead for the Eagles 72-63 with two and a half minutes left. With a minute left in the game Blankenship had a layup and the Wolves were down by seven, 72-65. The lead grew to ten points after two freethrows from Langenhorst, and the Eagles won 77-67.
Northwest was lead by Miranda Langenhorst with 29 points and 13 rebounds, and Mariah Stacona with 16 points and 3 rebounds. Walla Walla was led by Carolina Montes with 23 points and 4 rebounds, Sarah Halversen with 13 points and 4 rebounds, and Alyssa Blankenship with 12 points and 6 rebounds.