Box Score

CALDWELL, Idaho — In a battle of Canyon County rivals, it only seems fitting that a local be the star of the game.

Nampa High product Danielle Jardine had a career night, which included scored 10 points in a decisive second-half surge, leading Northwest Nazarene to a 99-95 victory at The College of Idaho on Saturday night.

"Offensively we had a great night," NNU head coach Steve Steele said. "I think we had three kids who had more points than minutes tonight."

Led by Jardine, who had a team-high 21 points in 19 minutes. McKenna Walker added 17 points in 14 minutes, and Kate Cryderman had 16 points in 16 minutes.

None were bigger than Danielle Jardine's 10-point surge late in the third quarter and at the start of the fourth, though, as she helped erase a 6-point deficit and put the Crusaders (2-0 overall) on top for good.

Trailing 64-58, Walker started the NNU comeback with two free throws before four straight from Jardine tied the game, 64-64.

The sophomore forward then added two free throws and a tip-in putback to give her team a 70-68 advantage before the end of the session.

Jardine then tossed in a layup, sandwiched by an Ellie Logan bucket and a Marina Vallés deuce, and with 8 ½ minutes to play the Crusaders held a 77-71 lead.

Danielle Jardine kept adding points, as a layup pushed the Crusader lead to 84-75 with 6 minutes left, then NNU held on as the host Coyotes threatened late, but got no closer than the final 4-point margin.

"It's always better to win than to lose, but we have to start playing defense on game nights like we do in practices," said Steele, who got his first win in his first C of I versus NNU game. "We had a great week of practice, but we don't put those things in the game.

"We have to start drawing confidence from our defense and not our offense," he added. "We know we can score, but if we want to survive in our conference we have to defend."

NNU did rack up the points, shooting 36-of-64 (56.3 percent), with Colette Gall and Walker each adding in 17 points apiece, and Cryderman scoring 16. Gall and Danielle Jardine also grabbed six rebounds each to lead NNU, which improved to 42-4 all-time in the head-to-head series.

The Crusaders return to action next weekend, once again on the road, as they play Hawaii Pacific on Friday and Cal State San Bernardino on Saturday at a Thanksgiving tournament hosted by Central Washington.