By Mariia Yazepova | Staff Writer
Whitworth Women’s basketball team closed out the visiting Walla Walla Wolves in a closely-contested 63-57 game on Thursday, Nov. 10.
Early in the game, both teams took some time to get going offensively. Towards the end of the first quarter, the Bucs showed their defensive proves and that helped create an 8-point lead.
The second quarter saw Whitworth flourish on offense. The lead extended to 39-21 going into the second half.
The Pirates were leading in field goals scored with 18 while Walla Walla made 8. The Bucs were also winning the rebounding battle (28-11).
Walla Walla found their rhythm on offense in the third quarter. The Wolves scored 16 points in the quarter, but the Bucs still had a 50-37 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
The Pirates had a hard time scoring from the field. On the other end, Paulina Quintana was driving the Wolves’ comeback while living at the free-throw line (8/13 FTs).
Walla Walla had chances to take over the game, but Whitworth calmly closed a tight game.
Devyn Cope and Olivia Mayer scored 15 points each. Quincy McDeid added 13 while 8/8 from the charity stripe.
Jaliyah Casem’s 19 points led the Wolves. Chariah Daniels added 14 points and 11 rebounds.
“This was only our third competition of the year, and that really showed at some point,” head coach Kenny Love said. “I think what things were going well, we snowball that into advantages when things aren’t going well. It takes some time to kickstart ourselves again.”
“I thought [the] team responded well getting the lead only down to three or four points,” Love said. “We went to making some free throws down the end. Senior leader Quincy muddied and put the game away when things could have gone off the rails even more – we may have still be playing in overtime if she wasn’t able to make those free throws.”
Whitworth will play away on Nov. 18, against Northwest University (Wash.)