BOX SCORE
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Despite dropping the regular season finale to the Owls of Oregon Tech Saturday, 80-62, Corban's women's basketball team qualified for the Cascade Collegiate Conference tournament and will heading to Eastern Oregon for the opening round next week.
Corban (9-20, 5-13 CCC) was led by sophomore Tara Vanweerdhuizen with 14 points and a game-high 18 rebounds, while the senior duo of
Tess Bennett and
Emily Tsugawa chipped in with 13 and 11 points, respectively. Sophomores
Katherine Salness and
Hanna Ellis came off the Warriors' bench to score eight points each, while Bennett grabbed seven rebounds and Tsugawa dished out seven assists for Corban.
Oregon Tech (20-8, 13-5 CCC) got a game-high 23 points from Karissa Dixon, while Kassi Conditt and Karly Leveque added 16 and 15 points, respectively. On the boards, Nicole Aboumrad, Conditt, and Maria Ramirez each pulled down eight rebounds for the Owls to go along with a game-high tying seven assists by Ramirez.
Following a 4-4 tie at the 17:22 mark, Corban went on a 10-4 run that resulted in a six-point lead (14-8) on a jumper by freshman
Jade Lowery with 14:02 on the clock. Over the next five minutes, Oregon Tech would score eight unanswered points en route to taking a 16-14 lead on a jumper by Leveque with just over nine minutes left. After the host Owls grabbed a four-point lead (20-16) at the 7:47 mark, Corban used a 10-0 run over a span of four minutes to take a 26-20 lead on a unorthodox four-point play by Ellis with 3:48 left. Ellis' four-point play seemed to ignite a fire underneath Oregon Tech, as the Owls scored 11 straight points that resulted in a 31-26 lead with 1:39 left in the first half. Over the final 99 seconds, Oregon Tech would score four-of-seven points and took a six-point lead (35-29) into halftime.
The second half would begin with Oregon Tech using a 9-4 run that resulted in an 11-point lead (44-33). The Owls allowed Corban to get within six points (59-53) before blowing the game wide open with a 21-6 run that ended on a pair of free throws by Aboumrad with 11 seconds left that made the score 80-59. Bennett would score the game's final points via a three-pointer for Corban, as Oregon Tech earned the No. 3-seed in next week's CCC Tournament thanks to a 80-62 win.
As a team, Corban combined to shoot 22-of-69 (31.9%) from the field that included an 8-for-21 (38.1%) showing from beyond the three-point line and a 10-of-14 (71.4%) performance at the free throw line. On the other hand, Oregon Tech was a combined 28-of-69 (40.6%) from the field, 6-of-16 (37.5%) from long distance, and 18-of-26 (69.2%) at the charity stripe.
As mentioned before, Corban will return to action on Tuesday, February 19th, in the opening round of the CCC Tournament against top-seeded and No. 3-ranked Eastern Oregon beginning at 7:00 p.m. inside Quinn Coliseum in La Grande.
