SALEM, Ore. – Despite a late rally from the visiting team, the Corban University Women's Basketball team (5-4, 2-1) secured a win on their home floor in front of over 600 elementary school kids for the program's annual Field Trip game at Tim Hills Court, defeating the NCAA DIII Boxers of Pacific University (6-2, 2-0) by a final score of 74-70.

"It was a lot of fun playing in front of a packed house of elementary fans, they brought a ton of energy and excitement with them today," Warriors' Head Coach Bill Pilgeram shared after his team's third consecutive win earlier today.

We got off to a slow start and just missed some opportunities we usually convert on in the first quarter, but the second quarter was a thing of beauty," Pilgeram explained.

The Boxers kicked off the contest with back-to-back-to-back three-point plays, scoring on two three-pointers and a traditional and-one bucket to quickly jump out to a 9-0 lead on the road. Corban wouldn't get on the board until the five-minute mark of the first quarter, while Pacific continued feeding the hot hands to take a dominate 22-11 lead into the first-second quarter transition.

Despite a double-digit lead, the Warriors were able to string together a massive second quarter of offense to jump back into this contest, scoring a season-high 29 points in a single quarter to take a seven-point lead into the halftime break. Redshirt freshman guard Tori Younker and senior forward Holly Golenor were tied for the Warrior' scoring lead at the half, each tallying eight points while Boxers' guard Brilie Kovaloff was the game leader with 13 points.

Corban was able to stretch their lead to 10 points on two separate occasions in the third quarter, with the Boxers scoring on a jumper with four seconds remaining to pull within eight points, well within striking distance for the squad that once led by 11 points in the first quarter.

Over the final 10 minutes of play, Pacific trimmed their deficit to a single possession on multiple occasions, yet the Warriors never relinquished the lead no matter how many desperation baskets the Boxers were able to convert on.

With one minute remaining, Pacific decided to play the fouling game down four points to try to swing the momentum, and they were able to do just that off two missed Corban free throws and a three-pointer from Kovaloff to pull within two points. Two made free throws from freshman guard Jenna Albrecht put the Warriors back up by four, but Kovaloff connected on yet another shot from beyond the three-point arc to trail by just one point.

Junior guard Kirsten Koehnke scored on her two free throw attempts, meaning the Boxers would have one last opportunity to tie the contest with six seconds remaining. However, the comeback bid was not meant to be, as forward Danica Schmidt's three-pointer was blocked by Golenor and thrust out of bounds off the Boxers, giving the Warriors the ball and forced another Pacific foul to send sophomore guard Alyssa Wyllie to the line. She connected on the second free throw to give Corban a four-point lead with one second remaining and the Boxers couldn't get off a last second heave to close out the game.

Albrecht led all Warriors with 13 points, a new career-high for the freshman's young career, adding four assists in 26 minutes played off the bench. Golenor and Younker each scored 12 points alongside another 12 from sophomore guard Gemma LaVergne, all while Golenor and LaVergne nabbed eight and seven rebounds, respectively.

Kovaloff's incredible efforts ended with 26 points and seven boards in 36 minutes of action as the only Boxer with a consistent afternoon of play, while forward Kaylee-Brooke Manuel added 10 points on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting from the field.

The Warriors return to action at the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center this upcoming Friday, December 9th, as they're set to host the NCAA DII Western Oregon University Wolves (4-2, 0-2) in an exhibition matchup for Corban, with tipoff scheduled for 5:30pm PST.

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