SALEM, Ore. – There is no longer a single shred of doubt as to who the top team in the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) is for the 2025-26 season, as the No. 20-ranked Corban University Women's Basketball team left everything out on the court in their CCC Tournament title matchup with No. 17-ranked Lewis-Clark State College in front of a packed C.E. Jeffers Sports Center, holding the visiting Warriors to their lowest point total in a contest since the 2021-22 season. The Navy and Gold utilized a 15-2 scoring run in the third quarter to lock up their first conference tournament championship in nearly twenty years, defeating the nationally ranked LC State squad for a second time in just over a week to emphatically plant their stake atop the Pacific Northwest.
"I say this every time, but I just could not be prouder of this team," shared Warriors' head coach Kylie Frizell when asked to discuss her second conference title claimed this season. "We talked after the OIT semifinal game about how executing for a complete forty minutes leads to these kinds of wins, and they perfectly executed that gameplan again tonight. When the offense wasn't flowing like we wanted it to, they stepped up on the defensive end and held LC to under forty total points thanks to their tenacity on defense. Lewis-Clark State is an incredibly good team, and the only way to beat them is to do all the things they do extremely well even better than they can. And we did just that tonight. We knew going into this game that this was a perfect opportunity to leave no doubt as to who the best team in the conference is after such a back-and-forth regular season, and Corban women's basketball is here to stay. We're looking forward to continuing this postseason run into the national tournament!"
Tonight's result in the CCC championship contest was an abnormal one to say the least for both Warrior squads, as Corban (26-5) and LC State (23-8) were the two highest scoring offenses in the conference during the regular season, averaging 80.0 and 76.4 points per game, respectively. In their third matchup of the year, the two juggernaut programs combined for just 95 total points, as the defenses shined throughout a majority of tonight's matchup on Tim Hills Court.
The largest lead of the night for Lewis-Clark State came just three minutes into the contest, as they converted on back-to-back three-pointers to move up two possessions early in the first period. However, LC State would go on to hit just one more triple the entire contest, as their offense became ice cold for the remainder of the night and defensively missed far too many assignments to provide Corban with open shot attempts. The Dubs went on a 10-0 scoring run following the back-to-back LCSC three-pointers and led by six at the end of the first quarter.
An even 10-10 second quarter allowed LC State to enter the halftime break with a decent opportunity to right the ship in the third, just as they did the previous night against No. 2-seeded Eastern Oregon University. Instead of an offensive outburst, they were left with the one of their worst shooting periods of the season, as the visiting Warriors were 1-for-14 from the field in the third quarter, including 0-for-6 from deep and turned the ball over five times. While the Navy and Gold didn't shoot much better (5-for-15), they were still able to add 13 points to their comfortable lead and cruise into their final quarter on Tim Hills Court this season with a double-digit championship lead.
In the fourth, Corban women's basketball stretched their lead to as many as 21 points following a dagger three-pointer from redshirt sophomore guard Jersey Huerta with under three minutes to play. Huerta would go on to bury another triple with 35 seconds remaining, and following a fastbreak layup for LC State, Huerta dribbled the clock out and was met by her entire team just over midcourt as time expired.
For a second-straight matchup against CCC title contenders, Huerta proved why she's one of the most lethal scorers in the Pacific Northwest via her game-high 24 points, five rebounds, and three steals to lead all scorers, while redshirt junior guard Jenna Albrecht scored all of her points from range as she was 4-for-4 from three-point territory and added five assists and five boards. Graduate student center Emilia Bishop tacked on another 11 points with six rebounds.
In LC State's sixth-straight CCC title match appearance, guard Payton Hymas was the only visiting student-athlete in double-figure scoring, as she notched 14 points and three rebounds while forward Darian Herring was everywhere on the court for the Lewiston Warriors, collecting nine points, 12 rebounds, four blocks, and three steals on a 4-for-15 shooting night. Senior leader and guard Sitara Byrd scored six points with seven rebounds and was 1-for-8 from the field.
With the first of two automatic bids already secured thanks to their regular season conference championship, the Warriors will now await their Opening Round fate, as they will travel to one of the 16 sites selected after not earning a host bid for the first two rounds of the NAIA National Tournament themselves, as announced earlier today by the national office. The 2026 NAIA Women's Basketball Tournament Selection Show will be released on Thursday, March 5th at 5pm PT on the NAIA's YouTube channel.
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