Whitman Women Shoot 65 % in First Half on Way to 72 - 42 Win Over Willamette

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Walla Walla, WA – The Lady Missionaries shot 65 % from the field in the first half and employed a harassing defense in beating Willamette 72 – 41 tonight at the Sherwood Center. Every member of the line-up saw double-digit minutes as Whitman improves to 6 – 2 in the NWC and 13 – 3 overall. Willamette is now 0 – 7 in conference and 0 – 16 on the season.

Willamette hit the first bucket of the game when guard Jojo Delong converted a layup but the Missionaries then went on a 16-to-nothing run during which junior post Sarah Anderegg (Redmond, WA) scored six points – Anderegg would finish the half with 16. Willamette forward Mackenzie Lamson drove for a deuce but the Missionaries, again, answered with another run; this time 8-straight points as senior forward Mary Madden (Huntington Beach, CA) converted two straight to make it 24 – 4 at the 11:07 mark.

The first half ended with the Whitties leading 43 – 21.  Head Coach Michelle Ferenz commented on the offensive effort in the first twenty minutes, "We did a lot better job of executing our half-court offense. I thought we took advantage of some matchup advantages that we had against Willamette."

The Missionaries maintained a 20-point margin throughout the second half – their biggest lead of 32 coming at the 10:10 mark when sophomore forward Hallie Buse (Boise, ID) drained a long three-pointer from the wing to make the score 63 - 31.

The Bearcats kept battling, getting 8 points from Lamson in the second half -- she led Willamette in scoring with 14, but Whitman never let the Bearcats back in the game, hitting key shots and making defensive stops the rest of the way. The Whitties finished the game shooting 53 % for the game while holding Willamette to just 31 %.

The Whitman defense also forced 24 turnovers and blocked six Willamette shots – Junior post Meghan White (Huntington Beach, CA) swatting away 3 shots. White also had a game-high 8 rebounds. The Bearcats were led on the boards by Lamson with 5.

Heather Johns used a strong second half to lead the Whitties in scoring with 17 along with 4 assists. "I thought Heather did a nice job of attacking the basket", said Coach Ferenz. Mary Madden had 10 and White 9

Whitman now hits the road to face Pacific Lutheran on Friday and Puget Sound on Saturday.