WOU Women's Basketball] Western Oregon 88, Northwest 51

Salem-News.com Sports

MONMOUTH, Ore. - The Western Oregon University women's basketball team used a 19-5 run to open the second half and went on to defeat Northwest University 88-51, Saturday, Dec. 13th.

The Wolves notched their highest point total of the season to improve to 4-3 on the year as the Eagles dropped to 3-8.

WOU outscored NU 48-20 in the second half as it made 50 percent of its shots from the field (16-32) compared to 16.7 percent (6-36) for the Eagles. The Wolves would also dominate the boards in the second period as they pulled down 32 rebounds to the Eagles' 21.

"After the half we were able to get more ball-pressure, limit their three-pointers and box off on the boards better," said head coach Greg Bruce. "We played bad defense in the first half but in the second we were able to force them into more turnovers and compete to get the win."

Western Oregon hit 11 three-points in the contest (11-25) and held Northwest to just 3-of-17 from behind the arc. Sara Zahler led the way with four three-pointers (4-7) as she posted a team-high 16 points. Katie Torland posted 13 points for her sixth double-figure scoring game this season. Sammy Nordstrom came off the bench and sparked the Wolves with 10 points. Whitney Chase hauled in a team-best 10 rebounds to go along with her seven points. Erika Wilson came off bench and had five assists to just one turnover to lead the team.

The Wolves put up their first positive assist-to-turnover ratio of the season as they had 21 assists to only 14 turnovers. Western Oregon had 12 student-athletes score in the game as everyone who saw game action contributed with a field goal. WOU also got a team effort on the boards as it won the rebounding battle 54-41.

WOU led 40-31 at the half as they hit 7-of-15 three-pointers in the first and limited the Eagles to just 1-of-6 shooting from behind the arc. Torland led Western Oregon with 10 points as she went 4-of-5 from the field and 2-of-2 from three-point range. Zahler hit a team-best three three-pointers in the half for nine points. Chase had a team-high six rebounds in the half while Wilson and Danielle Albus led the Wolves with three assists apiece.

"Overall we were able to accomplish what we wanted in this game," explained Bruce. "We were able to shake some of the rust off after not playing the past two weeks, compete against another team and get the win."

The Western Oregon women’s basketball team will begin a four-week road trip which will see the Wolves travel to Southern Utah (Dec. 17), Cal Poly Pomona (Dec. 19), Cal State L.A. (Dec. 20), and Oregon State (Dec. 28).

"This will be a tough road trip we have to prepare for," continued Bruce. "We will have to be sharp if we want to compete with these teams on the road."

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