NEWBERG, Ore. – Led by double-doubles from Keisha Gordon and Hannah Munger, the George Fox University Bruins knocked off the Lewis & Clark College Pioneers 77-58 to move into a three-way tie for first place in the Northwest Conference women's basketball race Saturday evening here at the Wheeler Sports Center's Miller Gym.
By gaining a split of the season series with the Pios, the Bruins improved to 16-5 overall and 10-2 in the conference. Lewis & Clark is also 16-5 and 10-2 in the NWC. The University of Puget Sound, which won overtime games with Whitworth University and Whitman College over the weekend, is 17-4 and 10-2 also.
George Fox scored the first four points of the game on layups by Munger and Gordon, but Munger picked up two early fouls and played only four minutes in the half. With their big center on the pine, the Bruins went scoreless for over six minutes and the Pioneers, taking advantage of the lull, forged ahead 7-4 behind a basket and two free throws by Kristina Williams.
A Kylee Parker three for the Bruins tied it 7-7 with 12:13 to go, and there were three more ties over the next six minutes. Megan Spence broke the last tie with a layup at the 6:20 mark for an 18-16 L&C lead, starting a 13-4 run that gave the visitors a 29-20 advantage with two minutes remaining. The Bruins out-scored the Pios 8-2 the rest of the half to trail 31-28 at the intermission, Gordon hitting two freebies with 0.2 left to narrow the gap.
Megan Arnoldy scored the first bucket of the second half for the Bruins, and Munger hit a pair of layups around Pioneer goals by Spence and Neva Hauser before Arianna Mohsenian hit two free throws at the 17:12 mark to give the Bruins a 36-35 lead. From there, the Bruins went on an 18-5 tear featuring seven points by Gordon and a pair of threes by Carly Towne to build a 54-40 lead with 10 minutes left.
An 11-4 run brought the Pios back within seven at 58-51 on a Hauser putback with 5:12 left. The Bruins responded with 10 unanswered points on a long three by Hayley Cusick, a three-point play by Gordon, a fast-break layup by Cusick, and a rebound basket by Munger to pull away to an insurmountable 68-51 lead with 2:42 to go. McKenzie Gorman hit two free throws with eight seconds left for the final score, which was the largest margin of the game.
Gordon led all scorers with 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Bruins, her fourth double-double of the season and fifth of her career. Munger finished with 15 points and 13 boards after having three and none in the first half, her ninth double-double of the year and 20th overall, and passed out three assists. Towne added 10 points, hitting a trio of threes. The Bruins shot .556 (15-27) from the field in the second half to wind up at .451 (23-51) for the game, sank seven threes, and out-rebounded the visitors 41-37.
Christina Herring paced the Pios with 14 points, while Williams scored 13, Spence 12, and Hauser 10. Hauser had a team-high eight rebounds, and Herring handed out five assists. The Pios shot .345 (19-55) from the floor, but only 1-13 (.077) on threes.
There were 47 fouls called in the physical game, with George Fox hitting 24-36 (.667) from the line and Lewis & Clark 19-31 (.613). The Bruins' largest crowd of the season - 1,654 - was on hand for "Bruin Madness", a special event sponsored by the George Fox Alumni Association.
NEXT: George Fox visits Whitman and Lewis & Clark hosts Pacific University Friday ... Both games begin at 6:00 p.m., followed by en's NWC games at 8:00 p.m.