Boxscore

ELLENSBURG, Wash. - The Northwest Nazarene women's basketball team broke away from a tie early in the second half and went on to defeat Central Washington 71-54 in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest at Nicholson Pavilion.

Beth Johnson scored eight of her game-high 12 points in the final 20 minutes to lead a balanced Crusader attack which saw seven different players score seven or more points.

In addition to Johnson, NNU (10-7, 5-4) got nine points each from three players - Briaunna King, Heather Adams and Monica Garcia, eight from Alla Dzhidzhiyeshvilli and Chelsie Luke and seven from Falissa Smith. Smith had all seven of hers in the second period.

Stacy Albrecht and Amber Moser scored 10 each for Central (6-9, 1-7), while Sophie Russell, Aleyse Evans and Alisha Love all had nine.

Russell's jumper with 17:55 left tied the game at 33-33 after NNU had taken a 31-27 lead at halftime.

But, the Crusaders went on a 12-2 run at that point to go ahead 53-41 and then increased their lead to 61-46. Their biggest lead was 19 at 71-52 with 19 seconds left.

NNU held Central to just 10 field goals in 30 attempts in the second half and to a 34.4 percentage (21-61) overall. The Wildcats made only two of 15 three-pointers.

Johnson had eight rebounds as Northwest Nazarene controlled the backboards 45-39. They also had 11 steals - three each by Smith and Dzhidzhiyeshvilli - forcing Central into 28 turnovers.

NNU shot 41.0 percent on 25 of 61. They also converted on 18 of 24 foul shots.

The Crusaders will travel to Western Washington and Simon Fraser University next weekend in a pair of GNAC counters.