Box Score



NAMPA, Idaho — This time the effort was pleasing, if only the Crusaders could have figured out a way to get those pesky shots to drop.

The Northwest Nazarene women bounced back from a disappointing setback on Thursday against visiting Simon Fraser with much more intensity against Western Washington, only to see the best shooting team in the league do what they do best.

The Vikings hit 60 percent from the field while the Crusaders got good looks but struggled to get those shots to fall, hitting just 38.5 percent in an 85-66 Great Northwest Athletic Conference setback to visiting WWU at the Johnson Sports Center on Saturday night.
 

"I think our effort from the start was good," NNU head women's basketball coach Ryan Bragdon said. "We just weren't hitting shots.

"We were just a little hesitant offensively, just taking shots," Bragdon said. "Our execution was fine, defensive intensity was good; the zone actually looked good, we were moving, we were rebounding, so all of that was good, much different from the other night.

"So I think the effort was there, the focus was there, just we weren't hitting shots."

NNU (4-11 overall, 2-4 GNAC) made 10-of-30 shot in the first half and 25-of-65 overall in the contest against the Vikings, who came in with the best field-goal, 3-point and free-throw shooting percentages in the league.

WWU (9-5, 3-2) helped its field-goal percentage, making 36-of-60 shots, and its 3-point percentage knocking down 7-of-16 triples. The only area the Vikings struggled was at the free-throw stripe, hitting just 6-of-14 charity tosses.

The good shooting led to a big early edge as a Marcel Pounds 3-pointer sparked an 11-0 run that turned a 7-6 Crusader leading into a 10-point deficit.

A Katie Swanson hoop-and-the-harm 3-point play for NNU cut the margin down to 17-12, as the Crusaders kept battling all night long.
 

But some first-half nerves might have derailed NNU's offense a bit as nine Crusader turnovers led to a dozen Vikings points, helping WWU forge a 41-21 advantage.

That lead quickly shrunk as a Katie Cryderman bucket for NNU trimmed the difference to 43-31 early in the second half, and an Ellie Logan jumper got the Crusaders to within 55-45.

Two more times NNU clawed within 10 points, but never got closer as the Vikings managed to hold off the Crusaders continuous comeback attempts.

"Second half we just loosened up and played more our game and hit the gaps more and took more chances," Bragdon said. "And even then, we got open shots and they didn't fall."

NNU did shoot better in the final 20 minutes, hitting 15-of-35 (42.8 percent), but it wasn't enough to catch the blistering 18-of-30 effort of the Vikings.

"Overall offensively and defensively we gave a great effort coming back and were making the comeback," Bragdon said. "We just fought until we ran out of gas."

Logan led the way with 16 points for the Crusaders, who also got a double-double from CoCo Gall. Gall had 15 points and 11 rebounds.

Taylor Simmons added nine points, five assists and five steals for the Crusaders who look to bounce back on the road with games at Seattle Pacific on Thursday and Montana State Billings on Saturday.