CEDAR CITY, UTAH - California Baptist University women's basketball trailed by 15 at halftime, but they stayed the course, rallied, and left Cedar City with a 69-66 win over the Thunderbirds. Nhug Bosch Duran led all scorers as a trifecta of Lancer seniors propelled the team to their fifth Western Athletic Conference win of the season, dropping SUU to 2-7 in WAC play.
Bosch Duran matched her career-high of 20 points set earlier this season, reaching that total with a pair of game-sealing free throws with under two seconds to play while also managing a game-high four steals. Grace Schmidt and Anaiyah Tu'ua added 16 points each, with Tu'ua contributing 13 in the second half and Schmidt adding 10 in a clutch fourth-quarter performance.
While the seniors paced the offense, freshmen CeCe Legaspi and Shawnee Nordstrom were also instrumental. Nordstrom saw her first action since November 30; she put in 14 minutes of work, scoring five points but frustrating Thunderbirds on defense. Legaspi did the dirty work tonight, matching Emma Johansson for the team-high in rebounds with eight, scoring seven points, and coming up huge defensively with four blocks and a steal.
The game opened with a relatively even first quarter that SUU eventually led 16-13. The second quarter saw SUU find their shooting groove to the tune of 11-16 (68.8%) from the field and 4-5 (80%) from distance to open up a 43-28 advantage at the break.
The third quarter was all CBU as the Lancers had the most complete period of the season, outscoring SUU 21-8 while holding the home team to 1-17 (5.9%) from the field.
Despite the incredible third quarter, the Lancers still trailed at the start of the fourth quarter. CBU continued to shoot exceptionally well, going 8-17 (47.1%) in the final frame and holding Southern Utah to another abysmal percentage at 3-14 (21.4%) as they tried to cling to their lead.
Momentum would stay with the Lancers in the fourth, though, opening up with a 12-5 run to take a 61-57 lead midway through. SUU would claw back and hold a 66-65 advantage with five seconds to go before Tu'ua drove the length of the court and three-quarters of the way through the key to dish to Schmidt under the basket. Schmidt powered through a clean hand on the ball from a Thunderbird defender and managed to bank in the go-ahead bucket. Swarming Lancer defense at the other end would result in a jump ball in favor of CBU, eventually leading to the game-sealing free throws from Duran.
The road trip continues for CBU as they head to Phoenix next to take on the league-leading Lopes, who sit atop the conference standings and are still unbeaten at 8-0 in the WAC and 14-0 at home this season. Game time is set for 1:00 p.m. Pacific on Saturday afternoon.
