January 12, 2013
Newberg, OR -- Another cold shooting night plagued the No.19 ranked Missionaries as they dropped their second in a row, falling to George Fox this evening in Newberg, Oregon, 50 - 38. The loss puts Whitman at 4 – 2 in conference and 12 – 3 overall. The Missionaries, now, sit in third place in the NWC. With the win, the Bruins improve to 5 – 1 in conference (a share of first place with Lewis & Clark), and are 12 – 3 on the season.
The 38 points is, by far, the Missionaries lowest point total for the season – their previous low was 56 in their last game Tuesday night against Whitworth. Whitman entered the game leading the conference in field goal percentage (46 % per game) but only shot 21.6 % tonight.
Whitman's defense kept George Fox under wraps in the first half but when the Bruins found their offensive rhythm in the second stanza, the Missionaries' poor shooting proved too much to overcome. Whitman took a 24 – 18 lead into halftime after a herky-jerky, plodding first half that saw suffocating defense and low percentage shooting as the major trends for both teams.
In the second half, the Missionaries held onto their lead for the first couple of minutes but the Bruins began to click offensively and tied the game 27 – 27 when Hailey Cusick hit a jumper in transition with 14:05 remaining. Moments later, George Fox took its first lead on a transition bucket from Nicole Blizzard, 29 – 27. The Bruins, then, extended their advantage to 39 – 29 as they outscored Whitman in the first 11 minutes of the second half 21-to-5.
The Bruins maintained their comfortable lead for the rest of the game as the Whitties could come no closer than 9.
Although from the outset it was a grinding defensive battle, Whitman went on a 7 – 0 run to start the game, capped by a Sarah Anderegg (Jr, Redmond, WA) steal and layup. The Bruins finally got on the board at the 14:50 mark when guard Jani Roos hit a three-ball to make it 7 – 3. Whitman stretched its lead to 14 – 7 on a Meghan White (Jr, Huntington Beach, CA) layup at the 10:32 mark. Then, the Missionaries went cold and the Bruins clawed back to within two, 14 – 12 when Roos drilled a three from the wing.
Whitman put together a late offensive spurt to take the 6-point lead into halftime – sophomore Hailey Ann Maeda (So, Kailua, HI) made a nice step-over drive to cap the scoring.
The Whitties were led in scoring by Anderegg with 9; Heather Lovelace (So, McKinleyville, CA) came off the bench for 8 and guard Heather Johns (So, W. Richland, WA) had 7. Forward Megan Arnoldy led the George Fox attack with 12; Cusick, Justine Benner, and Roos each tossed in 9.
Johns led all rebounders with 9 and White chipped in with 7 – her season average.
The Missionaries, after a four-game road trip, return to the Sherwood Athletic Center for home games against Linfield and Willamette -- Friday and Saturday contests, January 18 and 19.
Contact:
Andrew Holt
Whitman Sports Information Director
509.527.5902