Box Score

BURNABY, B.C. – Host Simon Fraser used a 19-0 charge in the second half to turn the tide and upset No. 18 Northwest Nazarene in Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball Thursday night.

Rebecca Langmead's bucket with 5 minutes, 5 seconds remaining capped the run, which turned a 56-48 lead for NNU into a 67-56 deficit en route to the Clans' 75-66 win.

"It's disappointing, but the disappointing part is that we didn't do the things that make us successful, like make free throws," NNU coach Ryan Bragdon said. "And we didn't get to the line as much as we normally do."

The Crusaders went 8-of-14 (57.1 percent) from the free-throw line, well off their normal effort as NNU came into the game No. 4 in the nation with a 78.8 free-throw percentage.

And well below NNU's normal amount of free-throw attempts – NNU averaged 29.5 free-throw attempts per game coming into the contest.

Still, the Crusaders (10-3 overall, 3-2 GNAC) grabbed an 18-11 lead midway through the first half on a 3-point play by Cierra White, and only found themselves down 38-34 at the break.

Back-to-back buckets from Taylor Simmons put NNU on top, 44-42 with 15:36 remaining in the contests, and a Katie Swanson bucket with 12:26 to play gave the Crusaders a 56-48 edge.

Then NNU went silent on offense for the next 7:34 of the game during the Clans (9-3, 3-1) decisive run.

"We got fatigued and we kind of gave into it," Bragdon said of the Clans' 19-0 charge. "We played hard and put a lot of effort into our run to take the lead (56-48) and just kind of ran out of gas."

Leslie Warwick finally broke the scoring drought for the Crusaders with a layup with 4:53 to go, but NNU never got closer than 71-64 down, after another Warwick bucket, the rest of the way.

Simmons finished with a team-high 18 points for NNU, which also got 10 points and nine rebounds from Warwick.

White added 12 points and Chelsie Luke had 14 points and 10 rebounds, both coming off the bench, as NNU's depth proved to be a bright spot for Bragdon.

"The bench played an amazing game for us," he said.

The Crusaders next play at Western Washington at 6:15 p.m. (MT) on Saturday night.