BOX SCORE
LA GRANDE, Ore. – Despite four Warriors scoring in double figures and a double-double by sophomore Tara Vanweerdhuizen, Corban's women's basketball team had its season come to an end with an 81-67 loss to the NAIA's No. 3-ranked and top-seeded Eastern Oregon in the opening round of the Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament Tuesday inside Quinn Coliseum.
Corban (9-21) was led by Vanweerdhuizen's 17 points and game-high 10 rebounds, while freshman
Julia Young added 16 points for the Warriors. Senior
Tess Bennett and freshman
Jade Lowery chipped in with 10 points each, while senior
Emily Tsugawa closed out her career with five points and a game-high eight assists.
Eastern Oregon (29-3), who extended its NAIA-high winning streak to 23 straight games, was led offensively by Brooke Randall with a game-high 25 points with Jorie Freeman and Korrie Bourne also scoring in double figures with 16 and 10 points, respectively. On the boards, Randall and Chayla Jones led the Mountaineers with eight rebounds each to go along with a team-high six assists by Kelsea Hurliman.
Both teams would open the game in a dog-fight, as neither team earned more than a four-point lead with Eastern Oregon holding a one-point advantage (15-14) with 13:27 on the clock. Over the next four-plus minutes, Corban would use a 10-2 run to pull ahead by seven points (24-17) on a jumper by Bennett with 9:50 left. The visiting Warriors would continue to hold the lead until the 6:48 mark when Corban held a 29-23 lead on a free throw by Tsugawa. Eastern Oregon would then use a 7-0 run over a span of two-plus minutes to go ahead by a single point (30-29) thanks to a fast-break jumper in the paint by Randall with 4:20 remaining. After Bennett tied the game at 32-all on a jumper in the paint with 1:43 left, Eastern Oregon closed out the first half on a 6-2 run to earn a four-point lead (38-34) at halftime.
The second half would begin with Eastern Oregon scoring the first seven point en route to earning an 11-point lead (45-34) on a jumper in the paint by Freeman at the 17:39 mark. Corban would get as close as eight points (50-42) on a Vanweerdhuizen lay-in with 13:50 left before Eastern Oregon push its lead to as much as 17 points (67-50) on a three-pointer by Hurliman with 7:15 on the clock. The host Mountaineers would continue to hold a double-digit lead for the remainder of the game, as EOU settled for the 14-point win (81-67).
As a team, Corban combined to shoot 25-for-66 (37.9%) from the field that included a 7-of-24 (29.2%) performance from beyond the three-point line and a 10-of-17 (58.8%) showing at the free throw line. On the other hand, Eastern Oregon was a combined 27-of-60 (45.0%) from the field, 10-of-23 (43.5%) from long distance, and 17-of-24 (70.8%) at the charity stripe.
Corban will look towards the 2013-14 season now, as the Warriors potentially return 13-of-15 players from this year's team.
