Box Score



NAMPA, Idaho – It was a tale of two halves for the Crusaders, but in the end the story had a disappointing ending.

The Northwest Nazarene women's basketball team played a strong first half and held a three point lead on visiting Simon Fraser in front of a spirited "Fan Appreciation Night" crowd at the Johnson Sports Center.

But five minutes into the second half the tale took a disappointing turn as a 16-5 surge by the Clan broke open a close game and Simon Fraser scored a 103-86 Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory in a game broadcast on ROOT Sports Northwest.

"We just came out in the second half with no sense of purpose, no sense of desire to really put our foot on their throat and take the game," NNU head women's basketball coach Ryan Bragdon said. "Instead we let one mistake or one 3 by them or one easy basket by them just tank us.

"We panic offensively, we don't execute offensively as well as we have been, we come down and we let that snowball into another shot and another shot," Bragdon said.
 

That allowed the Clan to stretch a tenuous 55-53 advantage into a comfortable 71-58 lead with 8 ½ minutes to play, and the Crusaders couldn't dig out of the hole.

But NNU (4-10 overall, 2-3 GNAC) tried its best to battle back, closing to 74-67 down on a Lexi Tubbs 3-pointer, only to see the Clan (7-5, 3-1) keep pulling away.

Part of the problem proved to be the difference from one half to the next in defense and rebounding.

NNU held Simon Fraser to a respectable 48.4 percent shooting (15-of-31) and outrebounded the Clan 22-17 in the opening 20 minutes.

Fueled by that effort, the Crusaders nabbed a 27-24 edge on a Taylor Simmons 3 with 8 minutes until halftime, and two Ellie Logan free throws stretched the NNU lead to 39-34 with less than 4 minutes left in the opening session.

An old fashion hoop-and-the-harm 3-point play by Simmons sent NNU to the break in front, 44-41.

SFU charged to a 50-44 edge out of the locker room, but NNU closed to 55-53 down on a Tubbs bucket with 5 ½ gone in the second half before the Clan pulled away for good.

And the Clan did it by shooting 61.3 percent (19-of-31) and outrebounding NNU, 26-11, in the final 20 minutes.

"We stopped playing defense, we stopped rebounding, stuff we did a fairly decent job of first half, and you can't win like that," said Bragdon, whose team will look to bounce back Saturday night when the Crusaders host Western Washington at 7 p.m.

Tubbs led the way with 21 points on the night for NNU, while Simmons had 16 points and seven assists, CoCo Gall scored 14 and Kate Cryderman added 12 points and six rebounds for the Crusaders.