CALDWELL, Idaho – Northwest Nazarene women's basketball emerged victorious in the cross-county rivalry against College of Idaho, coming from behind to defeat the Yotes 78-75 in an exhibition game on Friday night.
College of Idaho had control of most of the game, leading 21-18 after the first quarter and 41-28 at the half. The Yotes stretched their lead to as much as 18 in the third quarter, and still had a 16-point advantage, 67-51, with 8:39 to play in the game.
That was where things turned around for NNU, though, outscoring C of I 27-8 over the rest of the contest. NNU went on a 7-0 run in just one minute to make it 67-58 with 7:39 to go, and after two free throws from the Yotes, the Nighthawks scored eight unanswered to cut the deficit all the way down to two, 69-66, on a layup from
Kendall Clark with four minutes to play.
The Yotes held off the Nighthawks' comeback effort momentarily, but with two minutes to go
Madeline Gebers buried a triple to put NNU up 73-72 and give the Nighthawks their first lead since it was 10-9 at the 5:49 mark of the first quarter. The Yotes responded with a three to take back the lead, but
Chloe Deharo answered that with a triple of her own to put NNU back on top by one with 1:22 remaining.
From there, the Nighthawks kept C of I from scoring and added two free throws to take the 78-75 win.
The Nighthawks were led by a stellar effort from sophomore
Kendall Clark, who tallied 26 points on 11-14 shooting from the field and 4-5 from the free throw line. She also added seven rebounds and a steal.
Gebers poured in 15 points, including 4-8 from deep, while freshman Deharo added 14 points, six boards, and four assists.
NNU will play another exhibition game next Friday in Pocatello, taking on Idaho State at 7:00 p.m. on Nov. 1. After that, the regular season gets underway a week later against Cal State East Bay on Nov. 8 in Ellensburg, Washington.
