Salem, Ore. – The Missionaries outrebounded and outshot the Bearcats as they cruised to a 75 – 34 victory in Salem, Oregon tonight, notching their twelfth conference win and guaranteeing a first-ever Northwest Conference Tournament home game and, at the same time, keeping alive their hopes for a share of the NWC title.
The win secures, at least, a second place finish and ties the mark for most wins in a regular season at 19. First place Lewis & Clark (12 – 2) had the night off and plays its final regular season game tomorrow night at Pacific Lutheran. The Missionaries (12 – 3) hold the tiebreaker over George Fox (11 – 4) if the two teams finish tomorrow night with the same conference record. With tonight's loss, Willamette falls to 2 – 12 and 2 – 21. For complete conference standings click Standings.
Whitman (19 – 4) won with an impressive all-around performance that saw the Missionaries outrebound the Bearcats 38 to 15 (20 on the offensive end) and hold a deciding edge in field goal percentage 48.5 % to 23.4 %. "I thought our second half defense was terrific", said Head Coach Michelle Ferenz. "We held them to 11 second half points and outrebounded them by 20. It was just a great team effort."
On a night where everyone in the lineup saw meaningful minutes, senior forward Mary Madden (Huntington Beach, CA) led the Whits in scoring with 12 points (5 of 6 from the field and 2 of 2 from beyond the arc), post Sarah Anderegg (Jr., Redmond, WA) added 10, as did forward Heather Lovelace (So., McKinleyville, CA) who scored all but two of her points in the second half.
The Missionaries set the tone early and opened up a 16 point lead at half, 39 – 23. Post Meghan White (Jr., Huntington Beach, CA) fueled the attack with 8 points and 6 rebounds – she finished with a game-high 10 boards.
In the second half the Missionaries opened up a 28-point lead and held Willamette without a field goal until nearly 8 minutes had been played -- Sophie Wilson hit a trey at the 12:12 mark to break the drought, making it a 52 – 27 Whitman advantage.
The Missionaries grew it to a 30-point, 59 – 29, margin when Madden swished a three from the corner at the 10:32 mark, and a 16 – 5 run the rest of the way produced the final score.
Willamette's Sophie Wilson led all scorers with 14, on 5 of 10 from the field, and 4 of 8 from three-point land. The Bearcats also got 8 from Rebecca Josephson.
The Missionaries close out the regular season tomorrow night at Linfield (1 – 13, 2 – 20) with a chance to reach twenty wins in the regular season since Coach Ferenz took over the program in 2001 and a share of the conference crown, if Lewis & Clark falls to the Lutes.
Tip-off tomorrow is at 4 pm. Live video at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/linfield.portal. Live stats at http://www.linfield.edu/sports/sports-stats/basketball-live-stats.html.
Contact:
Andrew Holt
Whitman Sports Information Director
509.527.5902