With a twelve point cushion going into the second half, Corban College woman’s basketball team could not hold off the Hustlin’ Owls of Oregon Institute of Technology Saturday night at the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center.
“We had a great first half but we just couldn’t hang on in the second. We haven’t been playing as a team and that’s not going to cut it if we want to win games,” sophomore Katie Steigleman said.
Steigleman led the Warrior’s in scoring with ten points; however, it was not enough against fifth place Oregon Tech.
In her first collegiate start, Ashlee Jensen scored a career high of eight points, shooting 100 percent from the field. Sophomore Becky Buhler aided Steigleman’s ten points with nine.
Jennesa Miller grabbed 12 boards while Emily Tsugawa added a tying career high of six assists.
“OIT shot the lights out from the three point line and we couldn’t stop them defensively in the second half,” Jensen said.
Falling quickly behind in the first half, Corban used a 13-3 run to clutch a six-point lead against the Owls. Tied 15 all with just under ten minutes remaining in the first half, a lay-in by Lyon gave the Warrior’s the surge they needed to pull through going into half time with a score of 33-21.
Starting the second half, Corban watched as the Owls went on a 20-1 run to defeat the Warrior’s 54-60. With two minutes left in the game, OIT was up one, 55-54. A three pointer by Owls leading-scorer Lisa Busch and quick lay-in from Kelsey New was too much for the Warriors to handle.
With Saturday night’s loss, the Warriors fall to 4-9 in conference play while Oregon Tech moves to 7-6, with only five conference games left.
Junior Jennesa Miller said, “We weren’t ready to play a full game tonight. As a team we have to move past this loss and focus on our games this coming weekend.”