BOX SCORE

EUGENE, Ore. – Sophomore Tara Vanweerdhuizen registered her fourth double-double of the season with a team-high 18 points and game-high 15 rebounds, as Corban's women's basketball team fell to Cascade Collegiate Conference rival Northwest Christian, 69-66, Saturday inside the Morse Event Center.

With today's result, Corban drops its eighth straight game falling to 3-12 overall and 0-5 in CCC play. Meanwhile, Northwest Christian improves to 9-6 overall and 3-2 in league games.

Vanweerdhuizen's performance off the Warriors' bench also included a game-high four blocked shots, as senior Tess Bennett was the only other Corban player in double figures with 10 points. Freshman Megan Benedict, senior Emily Tsugawa, and freshman Julia Young added eight, seven, and seven points, respectively, while Tsugawa handed out a game-high seven assists to go along with a game-high tying five steals.

Corban would come out of the locker room and score the game's opening five points on a three-pointer by Tsugawa and a jumper in the paint by Bennett, as the Warriors pushed their lead to 9-4 with 17:18 on the clock thanks to Bennett's third consecutive jumper in the paint. Over the next two-plus minutes, Northwest Christian would use an 8-0 run to pull ahead by three points (12-9) before pushing its lead to double digits at 25-15 on a pair of free throws by Katie Collins with 6:43 left. Northwest Christian would secure its largest lead of the first half (29-15) on a jumper by Tami Brown before the host Beacons held a 14-point lead on two other occasions before settling for a 13-point advantage (40-27) at halftime.

The opening minutes of the second half would belong to Corban, as the visiting Warriors began to cut into Northwest Christian's lead beginning at the 17:12 mark following a three-pointer by NCU's Lindsey Shearer that handed the Beacons an 11-point lead (46-35). Over the next four-plus minutes, Corban would use a 12-2 run to get within a single point (48-47) on back-to-back free throws by freshman Kendra Staymates. After Northwest Christian built its lead back to seven points (59-52), Corban used a 7-0 run to tie the game at 59-all for the first time since the opening tip on a Vanweerdhuizen jumper with 7:33 on the clock. Neither team would score again until the 4:54 mark when Staymates hit another two free throws giving the Warriors a two-point lead (61-59). After a free throw by NCU's Kelsey Atkins, Vanweerdhuizen would give Corban a three-point advantage (63-60) on a jumper in the paint with 4:11 left. Sixty-three seconds later, NCU's Brown would pull the Beacons within a single point (63-62) before sophomore Katherine Salness hit a free throw with 2:56 left giving Corban its last lead of the game at 64-62. Over the final three minutes, Northwest Christian would score seven unanswered points thanks to five points by Shearer and two clutch free throws by Collins with nine seconds left for a 69-64 lead. Vanweerdhuizen would score the game's final points on a buzzer-beating jumper, but it was too late for Corban as the Warriors suffered the hard-fought 69-66 loss.

Four Northwest Christian players would score in double figured led by Shearer's game-high 24 points, while Collins, Brown, and Chandler Gabrio added 14, 14, and 10 points, respectively. Shearer and Brown would lead the Beacons on the boards with eight rebounds each, while Brown dished out a team-high five assists.

As a team, Corban combined to shoot 22-for-65 (33.8%) from the field that included a 3-for-17 (17.6%) showing from beyond the three-point line and a 19-for-25 (76.0%) performance at the free throw line. On the other hand, Northwest Christian was a combined 27-of-71 (38.0%) from the field, 6-of-16 (37.5%) from long distance, and 9-of-12 (75.0%) at the charity stripe.

Corban will take a 13-day break during the holidays returning to the hardwood on Friday, January 4th, against the Coyotes of The College of Idaho beginning at 5:30 p.m. inside the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center in Salem.