Boxscore

NAMPA, Idaho - Beth Johnson led the Crusaders with a 17 point, 10 rebound double-double, but the Northwest Nazarene women's basketball team shot just 37-percent from the field in a 76-72 loss to Western Oregon University on Thursday night at the Johnson Sports Center.

 

The loss places the Crusaders (14-12) and Wolves (11-15) into a tie for sixth place in the GNAC standings at 9-9, however Western Oregon owns the tiebreaker by having swept the season-series against NNU.  The Crusaders will now travel to second-seeded Alaska Anchorage for the first-round of the GNAC post-season conference tournament on Monday.  Tip-off is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. AST. (8:15 p.m MT)

 

Sixth-seeded Western Oregon will travel to #3 Seattle Pacific on Monday, while top-seed Western Washington will host #8 Simon Fraser and #5 Saint Martin's will trek to #4 MSU-Billings.

 

Johnson's double-double, the first of her career, led a group of four Crusaders into double-figures as Briaunna King scored 12, Chelsie Luke had 11 and Monica Garcia finished with 10.

 

The Wolves were led by Rylee Peterson with a game-high 22 points, Sara Zahler had 13, Danielle Bellando scored 12 and Jamie Richardson added 10. 

 

The Wolves shot 57.4-percent (27-47) from the floor to earn the victory, as the Crusaders won the battle on the glass 36-29, out-scored WOU from the foul line by two (19-17) and committed six fewer turnovers (18-24).  NNU struggled from the floor, shooting just 36.9-percent (24-65) overall and 31.3-percent (5-16) from the three point arc.

 

Monday's GNAC tournament game will be available with live video-streaming on the web on GNAC-TV (www.gnacsports.com).