EUGENE, Ore. – The Bushnell University women’s basketball team won the Cascade Collegiate Conference Spring Championship after knocking off Eastern Oregon University 81-67 on Saturday afternoon in their final game.
Having been unable to play during the regular basketball season, Bushnell claims back-to-back conference titles after winning both the regular season and tournament championships in 2019-2020. Lewis-Clark State was named the CCC winter champions back in February.
Bushnell (11-2, 9-1 CCC) pulled away from EOU with a 34-11 second-quarter as they doubled up the Mounties, 48-24 in the first half and never looked back. Eastern did what they could in the second half, climbing within 16 points in the third quarter and later to within 11 late in the fourth.
The Beacon’s unrelenting defense resulted in 13 steals as they forced 22 EOU turnovers. The Mounties shot 41% in the game and were unable to take advantage of a 45-28 rebounding advantage that included 15 offensive boards.
Head Coach Chad Meadors said, “It has just been such a pleasure to coach the group of kids that we have here at Bushnell. They care for and trust in each other and it really shows out on the floor. During the course of the game you could clearly see the depth that we have. We have developed a really robust group of players who are really talented.
“We are able to keep going to the well and you never know who is going to shine on any given night, and that has to be really tough for defenses to prepare for. We were playing against as good a defense in EOU as we are ever going to see, and we just ran into a stretch where things were clicking.”
Bushnell hit 59% of their three-pointers and had five players reach double-digits. Aly Mirabile came off the bench to score a team-high 17 as the Beacon reserves out-scored their EOU counterparts, 27-10.
Aspen Slifka went 5-for-8 from three-point range, scoring 15 points while Kaylen Kamelamela scored 13 points with four assists and a game-high six steals. Morgan McKinney closed out the season with a 12-point night while Sarah Reinecker added ten. Senior Kayce Mock was the only starter not in double-figures, but she was productive with a team high seven rebounds to go with her four points.
Eastern Oregon (12-4, 6-2) was led by Beverly Slater, scoring 20 points and 11 rebounds. Sailor Liefke added 16 points as she shot 4-for-5 from three-point range and collected a team-leading three assists. Jillian Albright also produced a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
The Mounties still have two games remaining in their 2021 spring schedule, playing host to Corban University next weekend for two.
The Beacons will take a school-record ten-game winning streak into next season. They have not lost since opening the CCC schedule with a road defeat to Oregon Tech in overtime on March 19.
Meadors said, “This group is really humble, and hungry, and smart and just wanted to go out and compete night-in and night-out, and we did everything in our power to do that this season. We did not get a chance to go to nationals and do all those things and our team is disappointed in that. They just really persevered and were a fun group to watch as they took care of every moment that was in front of them with class and character to win another championship.”