Box Score




NAMPA, Idaho — Lexi Tubbs drove to the hole and rolled in a layup to open the fourth quarter, and it looked like the Crusaders were primed for an upset.

Instead, a 9-0 run by Western Washington helped the Vikings grab a slim advantage they protected to the end as the Great Northwest Athletic Conference's second-place team escaped the Johnson Sports Center with a 97-90 win over the Crusaders on Saturday night.

"Great effort by the girls," said interim head women's basketball coach John Hartman. "We're playing the No. 2 team in the conference, a good team, they're hard to defend, they're big, they're really accomplished shooters.

"We threw every defense we know at them and they still hit."

NNU (8-12 overall, 6-8 GNAC) went toe-to-toe for the second time this season with the Vikings, but once again came up just short. Western Washington weathered a last-second 3-point attempt by the Crusaders for a 59-56 win in Bellingham, Wash., last month.
 

Saturday in Nampa, WWU (16-6, 12-2) had to weather a determined Crusader effort once again as a Kate Cryderman bucket midway through the second quarter gave NNU a 36-33 lead, and a Tubbs 3-pointer late in the third quarter capped a 9-2 Crusader surge that erased a six-point deficit.

That helped NNU take a 65-62 lead early in the fourth quarter after Tubbs' drive and lay-in before the Vikings scored the next nine points to regain the lead, up 71-65.

"It's a game of runs and we still have a lot of young players," Hartman said. "We play a lot of sophomores and a lot of freshman who don't quite get at this level runs are going to happen and you just have to try to shorten runs the best you can and go on your runs."

NNU put together a small run late as the Vikings tried to ice the game, but instead back-to-back 3s from Cryderman followed by another triple from Taylor Simmons trimmed a nine-point difference down to 93-89 in the final 20 seconds.

But the comeback came up just short for the Crusaders as the Vikings were just a bit better shooting the ball, hitting 34-of-65 from the field (52.3 percent) compared to NNU's 34-of-69 (49.3 percent).

"We didn't get to the shooters very well tonight," Hartman said. "I think that's a fairly quick fix."

Ellie Logan led the way with 24 points for the Crusaders, who also got 20 points and seven assists from Simmons, and 16 points from Cryderman.

NNU now hits the road for games at No. 2-ranked Alaska Anchorage on Thursday and Alaska on Saturday.