EUGENE, Ore. –Erasing a ten-point deficit over the final eight minutes, the Northwest Christian University women’s basketball team defeated No. 25 Eastern Oregon on Saturday night, 74-66, to claim sole ownership of the Cascade Collegiate Conference regular season championship. In so doing, the Beacons earn the conference’s first automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship Tournament in March.
From the early goings, the No. 16 Beacons knew they were in for a slugfest with the only other ranked team in the CCC. A three-pointer from Kaylen Kamelamela early in the game put NCU in front for a lead that would span into the third-quarter, but the Mountaineers never let things get out of hand. The Beacons led by as many as six in the second quarter, but were up by just three, 35-32 at the intermission.
Eastern kept themselves in contention, largely in part to a massive rebounding discrepancy. EOU held a 33-21 margin at the half, including 17 on the offensive glass.
Eventually, the Mounties grabbed a lead of their own, and with back-to-back three pointers from Taylor Stricklin and Whitney Meier, owned a 53-48 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Jillian Albright opened the fourth with a bucket and Stricklin drained another triple, giving EOU a 58-48 lead with 8:42 remaining.
As she has done all year, junior Morgan McKinney stepped up at the right time, hitting a jumper to kill the Mountie run. After a steal by Aspen Slifka, Dani Harley hit a three-pointer off a feed from McKinney and the home team was off on what would become a 22-4 run to put the game away.
Head Coach Chad Meadors said, “We struggled a little offensively and couldn’t get stops defensively and really put ourselves in a hole. Dani Harley came in and gave us a huge lift with some huge threes and some pressure defense that got us going. We did what we’ve done all year with everyone making plays. You never know who will step up from night to night and it’s been like that all season.”
The Beacons (23-5, 17-3) shot 39% from the field and hit nine three-pointers as they tie the school win record set during the 2017-2018 season. McKinney finished with a game-high 22 points, shooting 50% from the field with six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Slifka followed with 15 points, adding a game-high four steals and team-leading two blocks. Kamelamela scored 12 points and led the Beacons with four assists.
Kayce Mock played a huge part in the second half swing. Early foul trouble left the post presence on the bench for nearly the entire second quarter and she went into the locker room with four rebounds. Her second half included 18 minutes on the court and 13 rebound, giving her 17 on the night to go with seven points.
Saturday was also the final regular-season home game for NCU’s three seniors, Shanay Dotson, Dani Baker, and Hannah Eddens, who were honored in a pregame ceremony.
“CCC Champions never sounded so good,” said Meadors. “There was a lot of hard work put in by our players and they deserve it. I’m really happy for our three seniors, Shanay, Dani and Eddie who get to experience this on their last go round.”
For the Mounties (21-9, 15-5), who finish alone in second-place in the CCC standings, Stricklin led with 15 points off five treys. Jane Nelson added 12 points and Rachel Fielder came off the bench to score 13.
The Beacons ended the year completing just their second ever season sweep of Eastern Oregon and a team that finished ninth in the CCC last season and missed the playoffs completes a championship run that finished with a two-game lead for the title.
Meadors said, “We are really fired up to have done this against such a great program and to go through them at home in the last game of the year means a lot and we are on top of the world. Now we focus on the unfinished business we still have ahead. The pressure is off now that we clinched a trip to Sioux City, but we are going to work on getting the best seed possible for the national tournament.”
As the top seed for the Cascade Collegiate Conference tournament, the Beacons will not have to travel, beginning with a home game against No. 8 seed Northwest (10-20, 8-12) in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night. Eastern will head home to take on No. 7 seed College of Idaho (12-17, 10-10). Both games will tip-off at 7:00 pm.