EUGENE, Ore. – The Northwest Christian University women’s basketball team won their third straight game on Saturday night, knocking off Simpson University, 64-60. Martha Taylor scored 12 points and added three steals to lead NCU.
After fighting to an overtime victory against the Red Hawks in Redding last week, the Beacons once again had their work cut out for them as the teams battled through 18 lead changes and nine ties on Saturday night. NCU won despite shooting just 25% in the game including a 2-for-15 effort from three-point range. The key for NCU was 27 forced turnovers and 13 steals.
Head Coach Liz Turner-Bolton said, “Although out shooting percentage was low, I thought we executed our offense well at times. We got the looks we wanted, they just didn’t fall. Our team defense was better tonight and we are just starting to gel within our full-court pressure.
Taylor shot 4-for-8 and was a perfect 4-for-4 at the line for NCU (5-2) who is off to their best start in school history. “Martha contributed on both sides of the ball tonight,” Said Turner-Bolton. “We typically rely on her defense but it was nice to get her in double-figures offensively tonight.”
Lindsey Shearer put together another juggernaut as well, scoring 13 points with 15 rebounds, four steals and three assists. Shannon Harte added nine points and ten rebounds and Aly Bruns finished with eight points, all at the charity stripe.
Simpson (2-4) was led by Bekah Eppler, scoring 14 points and 14 rebounds. Tempest Dawson added twelve points in the loss. The Red Hawks shot 38% from the field and drained six three-pointers.
NCU will return to the floor on Tuesday night when they travel to face Pacific University at 6:00 pm.