Justine Benner knew what the grind of an unbeaten regular season felt like. George Fox athletics photo

As she and her George Fox teammates ran to the visitors’ locker room at Linde Activities Center two weeks before Christmas, you couldn’t blame Justine Benner for the doubt creeping into her mind.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps entered the game 5-3, but was an NCAA Tournament team the year before and clearly playing like one on this night.

The halftime margin of 48-22 had Benner “thinking, wondering, it’s a huge comeback. I’m not sure we can do this.”

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At this point, a second straight unblemished regular-season record was not on George Fox’s radar.

Picked to win the NWC again and ranked third in the country, things were far from dire in Newberg, Ore. But with a largely new core, coach Michael Meek knew it might take some time to regain the form of the previous season.

Two of the top three scorers – Benner being the returner – had graduated from the 2015 NCAA runner-up team, and Meek’s system, trademarked by a stingy press, “can be overwhelming for new players.”

They were 7-0 entering CMS, squeaking by Cal Lutheran 71-69 in the opener and perhaps showing their potential in a 92-66 rout of Puget Sound.

A second straight unbeaten season, though? Not a focus.

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The Bruins shot 7-for-31 in the first half that night in Claremont, the Athenas 18-for-39. It was a rout. Until it wasn’t.

George Fox forced eight third-quarter turnovers, held CMS to 2-for-13 shooting and produced a 22-4 advantage. Suddenly it was 52-44.

In the fourth quarter, more of the same. The Bruins ended the game on a 7-0 run, with Kaycee Creech’s layup with 25 seconds remaining proving to be the difference.

“We were able to see how much fight we have as a team,” said Benner, a versatile forward recently named to the all-NWC first team for the second straight season after averaging 17.4 points and 6.8 rebounds.

“That was a huge game for this team just to show so much toughness,” Meek added.

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Toughness is needed annually in the NWC, a two, sometimes three-bid league that has had a team in the national championship game each of the last two years and three of the last four (George Fox 2, Whitman 1).

The Bruins – also led by Sammy Naluai (12.0 points per game, 90.4 percent from the line) and Kaitlin Jamieson (9.4 points, 6.6 rebounds) – have their mettle tested during this 16-game slate.

Pacific Lutheran (9-16, 5-11), for example, gave them a 62-60 scare a few weeks back.

But as the season progressed and the 0 stayed in the loss column, a perfect campaign felt absolutely attainable.

“We thought, why not go all the way?” Benner said.

And they did just that, capping a 25-0 regular season on Saturday with a 71-61 victory over Linfield.

“I think, for this team, it’s just something they’ll always be able to remember,” Meek said.

***

It’s clear last year’s 83-63 defeat to Thomas More in the national championship still eats at those who were there in the darker shade of blue.

“Obviously last year’s ending was upsetting,” Benner said when asked about how this program views itself in the national picture.

Though just like an undefeated season, Benner and Meek say they don’t concern themselves much with that until the time comes – easy to do when winning a conference title is so difficult.

Well, the time is almost here.

Meek has established a mindset of approaching every game with one goal: going 1-0. Cliché, yes, but you can’t fault the results. They’ve done it 25 times this year, after all.

So when the Big Dance starts, why not go all the way?

“I think it’s just, for those of us that were there last year, it’s just motivated us to work harder and try to get there this year because we didn’t know if it would be possible or not,” Benner said. “I think seeing where we’ve come so far, we know we can make it that far if we really set our minds to it and really fight for it.”

10 takeaways

Ten takeaways from the final week of regular season play and the beginning of conference tournaments, not even counting the historic season for the Caltech men, who finished 9-16 and 7-9 in the SCIAC, with more conference wins than the program had in the previous decade.

• Disappointment for Wartburg. The Wartburg women began the season 12-1 and made waves nationally with a pair of top-10 wins over UW-Oshkosh and Wheaton (Ill.) to close non-conference play. But the Knights lost five of their next six to drop out of IIAC championship contention. Things again looked bright for Wartburg heading into the conference tournament, as it won six in a row to end the regular season, including a 69-51 shellacking against IIAC champion Luther. The roller-coaster continued Tuesday night though, as Coe scored the last six points in the final two minutes for a 66-60 quarterfinal win. The Knights finish 19-7 and return three starters.

• Blazers Lock Down. The St. Benedict-Augsburg season finale effectively served as a play-in game to the MIAC tournament, with the teams tied for sixth at 9-8 entering the game. The Blazers had lost four straight, including two by just one point, but came out on top in a defensive struggle to earn the final spot in the conference tournament. The Blazers led 8-4 after a quarter and the teams combined for two 3-pointers and 41 turnovers in the game. St. Ben’s 13-for-25 mark from the free throw line wasn’t pretty either, but it was enough to get the job done. CSB should feel confident going into its game against Gustavus; it split with the Gusties this year, winning in overtime and losing by a point.

• UPS the Clear No. 2. Puget Sound left no doubt as to who the second-best team in the Northwest Conference was this year, completing a season sweep of the Whits on the final weekend of the regular season. The Loggers (18-7, 13-3) crushed Whitworth 82-59, then defeated Whitman 72-65 to gain a three-game lead on both in the conference standings. Led by NWC player of the year Emily Sheldon, UPS likely needs an automatic bid to reach the NCAA tournament. That means beating Whitman again in the semifinals, then upsetting No. 2-ranked George Fox (probably).

• Redlands Avoids Tiebreaker. I’m not sure what the SCIAC’s tiebreaking procedures are beyond head-to-head, but Redlands made sure it wouldn’t need to use them for the final conference tournament spot. The Bulldogs handed Claremont-Mudd-Scripps its lone league loss of the season, 58-51, then cruised past La Verne, 61-48, to finish one game up on Pomona-Pitzer for the fourth and final seed. The Sagehens got their own crack at the Athenas, but fell 67-48. Think CMS is a bit motivated for Thursday’s semifinal?

• Superior Completes One-of-a-Kind Feat. Hard to tell if this has been done before, but it seems unlikely. UW-Superior has won conference titles in back-to-back years, each coming in a different league. A year after winning the WIAC, UW-Superior went 16-0 in its first year in the UMAC. The Yellowjackets were left out of the NCAA Tournament last year, so they certainly know the importance of these next two games. As for how they stack up in the West, a 77-72 loss to St. Catherine earlier this month might be telling – the Wildcats aren’t even in the MIAC playoffs. But one-game samples aren’t too fair; after all, St. Kate’s defeated St. Thomas this year as well.

• Buena Vista Blowouts. Poor Simpson. The Storm men and women each took beatings in the IIAC quarterfinals at the hands of Buena Vista. The women traveled north for an 87-61 defeat, while the men took an 87-58 loss at home. The BV men are quite a conundrum; picked to finish second, they barely got into the tournament with a 5-9 league record. But the Beavers aren’t a team you want to face right now, having handled Coe 100-84 in the last regular season game, effectively a play-in game for them. Nick Clark had 33 in that one, 16 on Tuesday. Next is a trip to Wartburg, which upset BV in last year’s conference semifinals a year after the Beavers ended its season in the quarterfinals.

• Augsburg Sneaks In. Heading into the week, I thought Augsburg had already played its way into the MIAC tournament with impressive wins over St. Thomas, Carleton and Macalester. All that was left was the Bethel-Carleton winner. But Macalester threw a wrench into that thought with a 71-60 shocker against the Auggies, opening the door up for Carleton, which fell to Bethel. Augsburg lost to St. John’s, but the Knights couldn’t get it done, losing 67-58 at Gustavus and keeping Augsburg from kicking itself for an entire offseason. Now the Auggies get another shot at SJU in the quarterfinals.

• Whitworth Survives. A George Valle tip-in at the buzzer gave No. 3 Whitworth a 67-65 win at Puget Sound on Friday, and the Pirates hung on for a 73-71 win over Pacific Lutheran the next night to win the NWC outright by an inch. No. 9 Whitman appears to be playing exceptional ball right now, and you know the Missionaries want their rival in the NWC final. But first both must past the UPS (Whitworth) and PLU (Whitman) tests again, and clearly that’s easier said than done. Both of those teams are fighting for their postseason lives.

• CMS Started at the Bottom, Now It’s Here. A year removed from an NCAA tournament second-round appearance, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps tanked to a 1-6 start in SCIAC play. A spot in the postseason seemed almost out of the question. But the Stags won five of their last six and seven of their last nine to finish 8-8 and grab the fourth spot, a game ahead of four other teams. Quite a turnaround, and it was capped with a 77-73 win at league leader Chapman. Can they do it again? Another trip to Chapman awaits in the semifinal round.

• Saints Take the UMAC. St. Scholastica entered the final week trailing Northwestern by a game, and looking (at least in my mind) at a possible share of the title with a win over UNW. But a motivated UW-Superior squad handed the Eagles a 94-86 setback to grab the last conference tournament spot (it then lost to Minnesota-Morris on Monday), and CSS completed a season sweep with a 76-69 victory on Saturday to win the league outright for the first time and prevent a UNW four-peat.