Box Score




NAMPA, Idaho — It turned out to simply be an overwhelming start.

Simon Fraser came out on fire Thursday night, and before the Crusaders new what happened they were in a deep hole that proved too much to climb out of as the Northwest Nazarene women fell, 87-65, in Great Northwest Athletic Conference basketball action at the Johnson Sports Center on the NNU campus.

"Well, we dug a pretty good hole in the first quarter and it made it pretty difficult for us to come back," NNU's interim women's head basketball coach John Hartman said. "However, I feel like we did a great job going in down only 14 at the break; they didn't quit, they didn't give up, and what else can you ask."

But the hole proved too deep, as Elisa Homer hit a pair of early 3-pointers for Simon Fraser, which took control with a 15-0 run after an opening Lexi Tubbs bucket for NNU to start the night.

An Ellen Kett 3 put the Clan on top 30-10, and the sixth triple of the opening quarter by the best 3-point shooting team in the GNAC, made it a 35-12 ballgame just 9 minutes into the evening.
 

However, the Crusader never quit.

A CoCo Gall jumped capped a 6-0 run by NNU early in the second quarter, whittling the margin down to 40-22, and a pair of Taylor Simmons free throws in the fleeting seconds before halftime made it as close as a 53-40 ballgame.

"We made an adjustment on defense to try and do a little bit better job," Hartman said, "we started out in a man and we went to a 2-3 zone pretty quickly. It helped us get to their shooters a little better.

"And offensively we started to cut hard and to do some things that are within our capabilities."

But the deficit simply was too much against the hot-handed Clan, who cooled off offensively from a blistering 10-of-16 from 3-point range in the first half. Still, SFU managed to knock down 7-of-20 shots from outside to maintain its advantage on the scoreboard.

Homer led the way with a record-breaking effort, knocking down 12 3-pointers and scoring 40 points for the Clan. Homer's effort smashed the previous best of nine 3s in a game set by both Kelsey Burns of Seattle Pacific in 2009 and Alaska Anchorage's Sasha King in 2013.

As for NNU, McKenna Walker had 17 points on the night and Simmons — honored before the game as the 25^th NNU women's player all-time to eclipse the 1,000 point mark in her career — added 11 points and five assists.

CoCo Gall chipped in seven points and six rebounds for the Crusaders, who look to bounce back quickly as they host Western Washington on Saturday at 7 p.m.