EUGENE, Ore. – On Friday night it was sophomore Kaylen Kamelamela’s turn to put the team on her back, scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter to lift the Bushnell University women’s basketball team to a 76-72 victory over Eastern Oregon University.
With the win, Bushnell (10-2, 8-1 CCC) pushes into a tie with EOU (12-3, 6-1) for first-place in the Cascade Collegiate Conference, setting up a defacto championship game for the Beacons on Saturday. A Bushnell victory, in their final game of the season, would give the Mounties a second CCC loss, claiming back-to-back conference titles. An Eastern victory, however, would not clinch the title for them as they still have one weekend of CCC games remaining.
No lead was safe on Friday as they top two teams from the CCC over the last two seasons put together another classic. Head Coach Chad Meadors said, “What a privilege it is to be a part of a great college basketball game like we were today. We are both completely different teams then we were when we split with them to open the season five weeks ago. We have both improved so much. I thought both teams played with a ton of heart and a lot of pride and it was a great game that we found a way to win. Eastern Oregon is a great team with great players. To go out and get a win against them says a lot of about your team because they have a heck of a program and coach Weissenfluh does such a great job with them.”
For the Beacons, who have now won a school-record nine straight games, the contest was their most difficult challenge during that stretch. After Morgan McKinney and Aspen Slikfa opened a 6-0 lead with back-to-back three-pointers, Eastern quickly established a presence defensively, while scoring 12 straight points of their own for a 12-6 lead. EOU led by as many as seven in the first quarter, holding a 19-12 lead with over two minutes to play.
Bushnell regrouped with an 8-1 run to close out the frame and trailed by just one point, after hitting six three-pointers in the frame. Eastern had a three-point play to take a 24-20 lead to open the second quarter, but the Beacons went on a tear, outscoring the Mounties 15-1 over the next seven minutes to grab a ten-point lead. The advantage remained 40-31 at halftime.
After growing their lead back to double-digits on multiple third-quarter possessions, Bushnell nearly saw the entire advantage disappear in the fourth as EOU made it a one-point game, 62-61 with 3:42 to play. That was when Kamelamela took over, scoring 12 of the teams’ final 14 points down the stretch including a three-pointer and five free-throws to ice the win.
Kamelamela finished with a career-high 26 points, shooting 9-for-13 from the field. She hit three threes and registered six of Bushnell’s 15 steals. Morgan McKinney added 14 points while Kayce Mock scored 13 points with six rebounds, four steals and two blocks.
The Mounties were led by Beverly Slater, scoring a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Sailor Liefke added 18 points while Mock’s former high school teammate Taylor Stricklin went for 14 and seven rebounds.
The Beacons close out their season on Saturday, tipping off against Mounties at 1:00 pm as they aim to repeat as CCC champions. “This is always what the goal is,” said Meadors, “and for both teams to battle through a crazy unprecedented season and end up here at the end is exciting.”