EUGENE, Ore. – The Corban University Women's Basketball team (2-4, 0-1) just couldn't find the bottom of the bucket tonight in their - loss on the road to the Bushnell University Beacons (3-2, 1-0), as missed opportunities and turnovers condemned the Warriors from the start.

"Bushnell came out and took the momentum early tonight," Warriors' Head Coach Bill Pilgeram shared following the conference opening contest. "I like how our group responded in the second half, but at the end of the day we have to find a way to be harder to guard and score more points early in the game."

"This is a great learning opportunity as we continue to grow with our new group and we will come back after the Thanksgiving break ready to get back to work," Pilgeram concluded.

The Warriors and Beacons battled through the first five minutes of the contest, with the home team holding a slim one-point lead. Some breakaway layups gave each team slight advantages back-and-forth, but neither team could gain much momentum before the first media timeout was called.

The Bushnell full court press was causing issues all first quarter for Corban, with a handful of turnovers resulting in layups and transition three-point shots for the Beacons. Corban was held to single digits through the entire first period, before junior guard Kirsten Koehnke beat the press with 0.4 on the clock and drew a foul to shoot two before the first quarter transition. She hit the first but hit the side of the rim on the second to have Corban trailing 16-10.

Neither team could find consistency on the offensive end prior to the second media timeout of the contest, with just four points scored by both the Warriors and Beacons halfway through the second quarter. Bushnell was finally able to put together a small 8-2 run over the back half of the quarter to take a double-digit lead into the low scoring affair, with the Warriors trailing 26-16 at the break.

Senior forward Holly Golenor lead the Warriors at the half with four points, while senior forward Kaci Paffhausen was dominate in the paint with six rebounds. Forward Kalina Rojas was the center of both the offense and defense for the Beacons, scoring a game-high eight points and matching Paffhausen with six boards.

The Beacons quickly jumped out to a 20-point lead thanks to a 10-0 run to begin the quarter, as the Warriors just couldn't find the bottom of the net. While Bushnell was able to hit some shots, both teams were shooting 31% or below from the field through the middle of the third quarter. 12 turnovers for the Warriors and 11 for the Beacons in addition to the poor field goal shooting is the story of the low-scoring affair to this point of the game, with both sides of the court hardly seeing any offensive success.

While the Warriors were able to slightly pull back within reach, the constant miscues resulted in a 19-point deficit for Corban, trailing 42-23 with a one quarter of play to go. Just 17% from the field is where the Warriors stood, looking to find some consistency for the first time tonight.

Down the stretch, the Warriors just couldn't find a go-to scorer to crawl back into this contest, as their last-ditch effort for a comeback fell just short at 59-48 with the reserves were able to find seams in the Beacon defense.

The Warriors had four student-athletes with six-plus points tonight, with redshirt freshman guard Tori Younker leading the group with seven points. Paffhausen added another rebound in the second half to finish the contest with seven for the team-high in the category.

Beacons' guard Aspen Slifka lit up the scoresheet in the second half, ending the evening with a game-high 16 points and falling one rebound shy of a double-double with nine. Rojas also fell a single board shy of the double-double, collecting 12 points and nine rebounds in 27 minutes of action.

Corban Women's Basketball will take a long holiday break to prepare for the rigorous CCC schedule, as they won't return to the court until December 2nd and 3rd when they host Warner Pacific University and Multnomah University at 5:30pm and 3pm PST, respectively.

Follow Corban Athletics:
Facebook l Twitter  l Instagram l Snapchat l  YouTube l  Email

Download our App: iOS (iPhone/iPad) l Android