Northwest Holds Off Higginbotham and Geoducks, 58-51
Northwest University held off an upset challenge by Evergreen on Tuesday night, defeating the Geoducks by a 58-51 score in Cascade Collegiate Conference women's basketball action inside Costantino Recreation Center.
Alexcis Higginbotham made a spectacular return to the Evergreen lineup after missing the past six games to be with her mother, who passed away a week ago Monday from cancer. Higginbotham tallied 20 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals for the Geoducks (0-20 overall, 0-16 CCC), while Deidra Miller added 11 for Evergreen.
Both Higginbotham and Miller are seniors and were playing their final home games in the CRC.
Sam Van Loo led the Eagles with 11 points and she added nine rebounds, while Miranda Langenhorst pulled down 10 rebounds for the winners. With her rebound total, Langenhorst broke the Northwest women's basketball career rebound record and now has 1,031 in four stellar seasons at the Kirkland school.
The Eagles got off to a quick start, leading by as many as eight points before settling for an 18-13 lead after the first quarter. The Geoducks were sharp in the second period, closing their halftime deficit to just two points at 32-30. Higginbotham scored seven and Miller added five during the period.
Evergreen gained the lead at 37-34 when Chloee Hunt drained a three-pointer at the 4:20 mark, and the hosts went into the fourth period with a narrow 39-38 edge.
Northwest regained the lead for good at the 7:56 mark on a jumper by Mariah Stacona, and the senior guard would later make two big defensive plays when the Geoducks were closing in on regaining the lead. She blocked two three-point attempts on the same Evergreen possession in the waning minutes, and the Eagles went 5-for-6 at the foul line in the final 22 seconds to ice the victory.
Van Loo was the only Northwest player in double figures as nine of its 10 players got in the scoring column.
Evergreen shot just 29.5 percent overall and 20 percent from three-point range, but it did win the rebound battle, 45-41, with Anna Cook grabbing a game-high 12.
The Geoducks take to the road this weekend to face Walla Walla University in back-to-back conference games on Saturday and Sunday.