Boxscore
NAMPA, Idaho - In a battle of potential NCAA tournament teams, the Northwest Nazarene University women's basketball team fell 76-68 to No. 21 Western Washington University on Saturday evening in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game at the Johnson Sports Center on the NNU campus.
The Crusaders (18-7, 8-6) entered the weekend ranked 5th in the NCAA D.II West Region, while the Vikings (22-4, 13-2) are ranked 3rd in the regional poll that determines the post-season invitations on March 7th.
Jessica Summers led all scorer's with 21 points for the Vikings, as three players combined to score 55 of WWU's 76 points. Willow Cabe scored 18 and Amanda Dunbar hit for 16 to make up the potent trio.
Brittney Roggenkamp had 16 points and Janee Olds chipped in with 15 for the Crusaders, who had a four-game winning streak snapped. Also in double figures for NNU were Lindsay Brady with 12 points and Heather Adams with 10. Adams also had five assists.
Western held a 35-26 lead at halftime, then opened the second half with nine straight points, the first seven by Summers, to take a 44-26 advantage with 17 minutes left.
The Vikings scored on seven of their first eight possessions of the period and were still up by 18 (50-32) with 14 minutes left.
But NNU rallied, scoring the next 10 points to close the gap to 50-42 with 11:40 left, and eventually climbed to within four (55-51) on a three-pointer by Roggenkamp with 8:39 to play.
The Crusaders got within four once more (72-68) on two Adams free throws with 1:17 remaining, and had a chance to get closer, but turned the ball over on their following possession, and the Vikings hit four free throws in the final 30 seconds to put the game away.
Summers hit her first eight shots from the field and finished nine of 11 and Cabe was seven of 10 helping the Vikings, who rank fourth nationally in field goal percentage (48.2), shoot 56.9 percent (29-51).
NNU also was efficient, shooting 52.1 percent (25-48), the best mark for any WWU opponent this season. Olds made six of 10, including three of five from the three-point line.
