Box Score



NAMPA, Idaho - The Crusaders came within 2.1 seconds of their first victory, only to see Kamille Diaz spoil it with a pair of free throws.

Diaz hit two charity tosses late for California Baptist, which erased a five-point deficit and grabbed a 96-94 win over Northwest Nazarene in a women's basketball shootout Saturday at the Johnson Sports Center in the NNU Tip-Off Classic.

"Clearly the issue is not offense, and hasn't been," NNU women's head basketball coach Ryan Bragdon said. "We've got some things to work on and it's some basic stuff. So really it's not hit the panic button time.

"It's basic stuff, we're working through a lot of youthful mistakes and adjusting to the way they call the college game," Bragdon added. "It's just working through that stuff and continuing to work."

The work continues for the Crusaders (0-2) - who opened the season with two setbacks - when they travel across Canyon County to face rival The College of Idaho at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night in Caldwell.

The Crusaders go into that rivalry matchup looking for win No. 1 after seeing a strong comeback effort spoiled by the Lancers (2-0), who led 22-11 on a Courtney Nelson bucket with 8 1/2 minutes gone in the first half.

"We've gotten ourselves in holes and we have fought back, now the issue is figuring out how not to get in a hole," said Bragdon, whose team rallied out of a 22-7 hole against Hawaii Pacific on Friday only to fall in the end.

NNU rallied again Saturday, tying the game 31-31 on a Taylor Simmons bucket and taking a 34-31 lead on a Cierra White 3-pointer with 3 1/2 left until halftime.

CBU reestablished its lead with a 10-2 run midway through the second half, going up 78-68 on two Cassidy Mihalko free throws.

With the offense clicking, though, NNU charged back into the lead, tying the game, 82-82, on an Ellie Logan free throw, and grabbing an 84-82 edge on two Simmons charity tosses.

A Logan bucket with a minute and a half remaining stretched the Crusader advantage to what appeared like a comfortable 92-87 edge, but the lead didn't last.
 

An Erin Asher 3 capped a 7-0 surge by the Lancers, who after seeing Simmons tie the game, 94-94, with 8.2 seconds left on two free throws, got the game winners from Diaz, who was fouled driving to the basket.

"Hopefully this weekend was a learning experience," Bragdon said. "We sent both teams to the line way too many times, and really, today that was the difference in the game."

It did come down to free-throw shooting, not just because Diaz hit the two decisive charity tosses late.

CBU hit 33-of-38 free throws in the win, negating good Crusader defense as NNU held the Lancers to 41.5 percent shooting (27-of-65) and forced 21 turnovers.

But CBU took nearly double the free-throw attempts as NNU, which was 17-of-20 from the stripe in the loss.

Simmons and CoCo Gall led the way for NNU as Simmons scored 21 points and dished out five assists while Gall had 20 points and 11 rebounds in the setback.

Lexi Tubbs added 15 points and six steals, Kate Cryderman had 13 points and Logan scored 12 for the Crusaders.

Mihalko led all scorers with 24 points for the Lancers, who also got 20 points and 13 rebounds from Darsha Burnside.