News Release Date:
Tuesday, February 24
WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- The Whitman College women's basketball team heads to Newberg, Ore., later this week to face top-seeded George Fox in the semifinals of the Northwest Conference post-season tournament.
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| Michelle Krall |
The game starts at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Wheeler Sports Center's Miller Gym on the George Fox campus.
Admission for tournament games, as established by the NWC, is $6 for adults and $3 for students and children 18 and under and seniors 55 and over. Students from participating schools are admitted free of charge with presentation of a valid student ID card.
Whitman's Athletic Department is sponsoring a free charter bus to take its students, staff and faculty to the game. The bus, which seats about 56, leaves campus at 1 p.m. Thursday and returns immediately after the game. To reserve a seat, contact Brendan Ziegler by email ... ziegleba@whitman.edu.
George Fox, ranked second and third in two NCAA DIII national polls, has rolled through an undefeated season, running its overall record to 25-0 and its NWC mark to 16-0.
Whitman, 18-7 on the season, and Pacific University tied for the third place in the final NWC standings with 10-6 records.
Pacific, 11-13 on the season, gets the No. 3 seed (based on a tie-breaker) and travels to play No. 2 Puget Sound Thursday night in Tacoma, Wash. Puget Sound finished in second place in the NWC standings with an 11-5 conference record.
The winner of Thursday's two games will play for the tournament title at 7 p.m. Saturday at the site of the highest-remaining seed. The tournament champion receives an automatic berth in the NCAA DIII national championship tournament.
This season's first meeting between Whitman and George Fox came in early January in Walla Walla. Whitman led 24-18 at halftime, but the Bruins stormed back in the second half for a 62-51 victory. The Missionaries trailed 47-43 with five minutes left in the game before George Fox scored 12 of its last 15 points from the free throw line to put the game away.
Senior Kristen Shielee sparked George Fox with 19 points, 16 rebounds and four blocked shots. George Fox drilled 21 of 25 second-half free throws and outscored Whitman 26-8 at the charity stripe. Hilary White led Whitman with 15 points, four assists and four steals, Michelle Krall added nine points and and three steals, and Anna Forge came off the bench for 10 points, six rebounds and three more steals.
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| Jenele Peterson |
Game two between the two clubs, which took place in late January in Newberg, wasn't much of a rematch. Losing for the fourth time in five games, Whitman fell behind 20-4 to start the game and never recovered as the Bruins cruised to a 67-36 triumph.
Rebecca Sexton, who finished with 10 points and four rebounds, was the only Missionary scoring in double figures. Forge added seven points, four rebounds and three assists.
That second loss to George Fox was the low ebb in Whitman's season. Since then, the Missionaries have won five of their last six games.
Whitman, which opened its season with eight victories, led the NWC this season in scoring (68.1 ppg), free throw percentage (75.7 percent), field goal percentage (42.3 percent; tied with George Fox), 3-point percentage (32.8 percent), and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.01).
The Missionaries were second in scoring margin (+9.6 ppg), assists (14.88 apg) and turnover margin (+3.68).
Four Whitman players averaged double-digit scoring for the season. White averaged 13.5 points, the fourth-highest mark in the conference. Sexton averaged 11.2 points, Jenele Peterson 10.3 points, and Krall 10.2 points.
Sexton shot 58.3 percent from the floor, which ranked her second in the NWC. White was No. 7 at 43.0 percent.
Peterson and Krall finished first and second in free throw shooting, making 87.1 and 86.2 percent of their attempts, respectively.
Four Missionaries averaged five or more rebounds a game. Sexton led the way at 5.6 rebounds per game, followed by Forge at 5.4, Krall at 5.3 and White at 5.1. White also keyed the defense by averaging 2.0 steals per game, which ranked her fifth in the conference.
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CONTACT: Dave Holden
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