California Baptist University
San Diego Christian
MO TOWN
12/2/2008 8:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
RIVERSIDE, Calif. ? It was a harmonious night for the Morris family as California Baptist's Kendra Morris lit the nets up with six 3-pointers in an 89-71 win over San Diego Christian. Just before Morris started draining three's, her mother Patrice put goose bumps on the Lancer faithful with the national anthem to start the game.
“Tonight we just made a more conscious effort to execute our offense,” said CBU Head coach Danelle Bishop. “We tried to force some things early in the first half, but we settled down and got into our offensive sets. It was nice to see that cohesiveness tonight. That's exactly what we needed.”
The Lancers (4-2, 1-0 GSAC) open GSAC play with a win for the second straight season. It is the first time since the 1989-90 and 1990-91 seasons they have won two straight openers.
Morris scored a season-high 23 points, going 6-for-7 from beyond the arc. The junior transfer also downed all three free-throw attempts and went 7-for-12 from the field.
“She's a shooter and that's why she's here, but more importantly, she got down and played great defense,” said Bishop. “She may have not had a steal, but she created a lot of steals. She told me in one of the timeouts ?coach, I got you tonight' and she went out and hit a couple of threes and that was all she needed to get her confidence going.”
Nicole Davis was also 7-of-12 from the field, scoring 18 points and added five boards, five assists and six steals. Megan Bradford and Heather Couzens were the only other Lancers in double figures as Bradford scored 11 points, nine of which came in the first half, and Couzens added 10.
The Lancers forced 26 turnovers and out-rebounded the Hawks, 30-28, all while shooting 60 percent (36-60) from the field and 55.6 percent (10-18) from 3-point range.
California Baptist opened up a 12-point gap midway through the first half after going on an 18-6 run that included seven points from Davis to take a 24-12 lead. After taking a 30-16 lead on a Davis three, the Lancers watched the Hawks go on an 8-2 run to close it to 32-24. The Lancers answered with an 8-2 run of their own to take a 40-26 lead at the half.
The Lancers jumped up 44-26 in the opening minute of the second half as Davis and Brianna Estell hit back-to-back buckets. The Hawks then used an 18-6 run to get back within six at 50-44, but CBU answered again with a 16-4 run to take a 66-48 lead with 9:02 left to play.
SDCC cut it to 75-63 with 3:29 left in the second half, but the Lancers used a 12-4 run to take their biggest lead of the game at 87-67 with 1:02 left.
California Baptist will now have head to Azusa Pacific, Saturday, where they will take on the fourth-ranked Cougars at 5:30 p.m.
