BOX SCORE
NEWBERG, Ore. – Freshman Tara Vanweerdhuizen tallied her first career double-double with 12 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, as Corban's women's basketball team dropped its season opener to No. 3-ranked George Fox, 79-57, Tuesday inside the Wheeler Sports Center.
Despite opening the season with three straight exhibition games against NCAA Division I schools, Corban had not played an official regular season game until tonight. Once the final whistle had blown, the Warriors found themselves at 0-1 and George Fox improves to 1-0 on the season.
Vanweerdhuizen and junior
Tess Bennett each scored a team-high 12 points, as the duo combined to shoot 10-for-28 from the field. Junior
Emily Tsugawa added eight points and four assists, while three other Warriors – senior
Becky Buhler, senior
Katie Steigleman, and sophomore Hannah Whitehead – chipped in with five points each. Freshman
Elizabeth Downs came off the Warriors' bench and handed out a game-high five assists, while Steigleman registered a game-high tying four steals.
In the opening 90 seconds, George Fox quickly jumped out to a four-point lead (8-4) on a Megan Arnoldy jumper before Corban stormed back with a 5-0 run to take a one-point lead (9-8) thanks to a lay-in by Tsugawa with 17:25 remaining. Over the next 13 minutes, George Fox would take control via a 33-5 run en route to taking its largest lead of the first half (41-14) on a three-pointer by Arianna Mohsenian with 4:28 on the clock. Corban would trim the Bruins' lead to 20 points (43-23) at the half, as the Warriors close out the opening twenty minutes on a 9-2 run with Buhler scoring five of Corban's nine points over the final four-plus minutes.
The second half would begin with a flurry for Corban, as the visiting Warriors used a 14-5 run over the opening five-plus minutes to pull within 11 points (48-37) on a Tsugawa jumper in the paint at the 14:19 mark. Unfortunately, George Fox would score nine straight points in less than 70 seconds en route to grabbing a 20-point lead (57-37) with 12:54 left on a lay-in by nearby Sprague graduate Jami Roos. The host Bruins would continue to apply the pressure, as George Fox built its lead to a game-high 32 points (79-47) with 3:05 left on a lay-in by Kylee Parker. Despite trailing by a large margin, Corban did not quit scoring the game's final 10 points to cut the final deficit to 22 points (79-57) on a Whitehead three-pointer that concluded the scoring for both teams.
George Fox was led offensively by Mohsenian with a game-high 20 points on 8-for-9 shooting from the field that included a 4-for-5 showing from beyond the three-point line. Meanwhile, three other Bruins – Roos, Keisha Gordan, and Hannah Munger – also scored in double figures with 16, 10, and 10 points respectively. On the boards, Munger grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds to go along with a team-best four assists that tied Bruin teammate Hayley Cusick.
As a team, Corban shot a combined 24-for-60 (40.0%) from the field to go along with a 4-for-13 (30.8%) showing from beyond the three-point line and a 5-for-16 (31.3%) performance at the free throw line. On the other hand, George Fox was a combined 27-for-59 (45.8%) from the field, 7-for-22 (31.8%) from long distance, and 18-for-32 (56.3%) at the charity stripe.
Corban will return to the hardwood on Friday, November 18th, against California Pacific Conference member Simpson beginning at 5:30 p.m. inside the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center in Salem.
