California Baptist University
Montana Western
DOWN BUT NOT OUT
11/15/2008 8:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah ? California Baptist battled back from a 21-point second half deficit and nabbed a 62-61 win over Montana Western in the final day of the Westminster College Women's Basketball Fall Classic.
The Lancers (2-2) trailed 48-27 with 16:42 left to play after the Bulldogs (2-3) led 40-27 at the end of the first half and scored the first eight points of the second. California Baptist flipped a switch and used a 23-4 run to close the gap to 52-50 with 7:48 left. The biggest point in that stretch was when the Lancers trailed 52-36 and Bryana Williams entered the game. With bad knees and all, Williams sparked the Lancers with six points, two huge blocks and five rebounds with three being on the offensive end.
“Bryana was a spark and that's one of the things we were missing from her in the first half,” said CBU head coach Danelle Bishop. “She has just a lot of passion. She has been banged up and she just steps up and keeps playing. We really needed her tonight.”
After the Lancers cut its deficit to two, the Bulldogs pushed their lead to five at 57-52, but a Heather Couzens jumper and a Megan Bradford trey tied the game with 3:59 left to play. Less then a minute later, Brenna Hahn put CBU on top 59-57, but Montana Western answered with a pair of free throws to tie it at 59.
With under a minute to play and the Lancers looking for an opportunity to score, Jeanine Deno found Bradford who buried the trey from the left corner to put CBU on top 62-59. After a two put the Bulldogs down just one at 62-61, Western got the ball back with 13 seconds left. Stephanie Dana tried to convert in the lane, but missed off the side of the rim and Couzens corralled the board to secure the win.
“Both of Megan's shots were huge,” said Bishop. “I pulled her out a little earlier in the game and was trying to get her refocused. When she came back in she was totally in the zone. I knew those shots were going in as soon as she released them. She was just clutch.”
Hahn led the way for CBU on the offensive end scoring a team-high 16 points while Nicole Davis was the only other Lancer to finish in double figures with 12.
“Brenna kept attacking when we needed her to and she came up with some huge shots,” said Bishop. “Her all-around game was solid and that consistency kept us going.”
Couzens was just two points and rebound short of notching a double-double as she finished with eight points and nine boards. Both Williams and Haley each pulled down five offensive boards as Williams grabbed six rebounds and Haley had eight.
As a team the Lancers shot 51.7 percent from the field in the second half going 15-for-29. After getting outscored 40-23 in the first half, the Lancers shut down the Bulldog offense holding them to 21 points while scoring 35 second-half points.
The difference for the Lancers was the ability to get out and run as CBU scored 15 points off of fast break opportunities, with 11 of those points coming in the second half.
The Lancers will now take a couple of weeks off before they take on Marygrove (Mich.), Nov. 29, inside of Van Dyne Gym.
