SPOKANE, Wash. – Keisha Gordon scored a game-high 23 points and Hannah Munger posted her fourth double-double of the season with 19 points and 10 rebounds as the third-ranked George Fox University Bruins downed the Whitworth University Pirates 81-69 in Northwest Conference women's basketball Saturday evening here at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.
Equaling their highest-scoring output of the season, the Bruins improved to 6-0 overall and 2-0 in the conference, completing a sweep of their NWC-opening road trip that included a 54-53 thriller at Whitman College on Friday. The Pirates slid to 2-6 overall and 0-2 in the league.
Whitworth came out strong, hitting their first two shots (a three-pointer by Lexi Belcher and a jumper by Emily Guthrie) to take a quick 5-0 lead. Munger got the visitors going with a layup, igniting a 9-2 run that was capped by a three from Carly Towne and gave George Fox its first lead of 9-7 with 16:55 to play in the half. The Bruins never trailed again, though the Pirates stayed close by hitting eight of their first 14 tries.
The game was tied twice more at 9-9 and 11-11, but another Munger layup and a trey by Jami Roos made it 16-11 with 14:41 to go. The Bruins stretched their lead to 11 at 29-18 on a drive by Keisha Gordon, but the Pirates got within eight when Jamie Lyons hit a jumper to make it 31-23 George Fox with 7:29 left. The Bruins then held the Pirates scoreless for over five minutes while they ran the lead to 40-23 with a 9-0 run, including a three and a layup by Gordon. Another Lyons jumper made it 40-25 Bruins at the break, but that was the only Whitworth basket in their last 11 shots of the half.
The Bruins opened the second half with a 6-0 run featuring a three by Gordon, a free throw by Arianna Mohsenian, and a layup by Megan Arnoldy to up their lead to 46-25. The Pirates made a 16-9 run to get within 14 at 55-41 following a basket by Katara Belton-Sharp with 12:37 left, but the Bruins pulled away with an 11-0 run, fueled by three Gordon layups, to take a comfortable 64-41 lead with 9:50 remaining. The Pirates got no closer than 12 points thereafter, closing the game with an 11-4 run to make the final score more respectable.
Gordon hit 9-11 field goals with a pair of threes and 3-3 from the line while Munger hit 8-11 field goals and 3-5 free throws as the Bruins' scoring leaders. As a team, the Bruins hit .508 (30-59) from the field and won the battle of the boards 38-27. Myers added 10 rebounds, Gordon picked up five steals, Arnoldy handed out four assists, and Munger blocked three shots. Breezy Rinehart-Young also had a blocked shot, the 74th of her career, which ties her for ninth all-time at George Fox with Lillian Jeske (74, 1981-82).
Belcher paced the Pirates with 19 points on 6-11 field goals and 5-7 free throws, while Guthrie added 10 points, along with a team-high six rebounds. Whitworth shot .455 (25-55) from the floor and knocked down half of its three-point attempts (10-20). Kayla Johnson passed out six assists and made three steals.
NEXT: George Fox returns home to host Colorado College Friday in a non-conference match at 6:00 p.m., followed by the Bruin men vs. Corban University at 8:00 p.m. ... Whitworth will take on the University of California-Santa Cruz in the Kim Evanger Raney Memorial Classic at Whitman in Walla Walla, Wash. Friday at 6:00p.m.