EUGENE, Ore. – Winning every quarter, the Bushnell women's basketball team took an early lead at Corban University on Friday and never looked back, knocking off their Willamette Valley rival, 84-60.
The Beacons (5-2, 4-1 CCC) shot 45% from the field and hit ten three-pointers. They collected 18 steals as they forced the Warriors in to 24 turnovers.
Head Coach
Chad Meadors said, "We are getting better. We did some good things both offensively and defensively tonight and you can really starting to see us play better together. We are better conditioned, and the trust is starting to take over. Defensively we showed our best zone that we have so far, and our man defense was causing problems."
Aspen Slifka led the early charge, scoring seven points in the first quarter as Bushnell established a 27-18 lead. The advantage grew to as many as 23 in the second quarter, with the Beacons cruising into the locker room with a 52-33 margin.
Morgan McKinney led the scoring effort for the visitors, scoring a game-high 20 points along with five rebounds. Slifka added 19 points and
Kaylen Kamelamela contributed 15. Meadors said, "Morgan, Kaylen and Aspen really led the way and hit a bunch of open shots. This was a big tempo game for us and we played fast and shared the ball really well."
Olivia Bailon came off the bench to provide valuable minutes, leading all players with five assists and four steals. "Olivia had a great game from an extra-pass standpoint," said Meadors. The ball pressure she put on, along with
Aly Mirabile and
Sarah Reinecker, was very effective and we made things hard on them. Corban is a good team and we really jumped on them early, which led the way.
Corban (4-3, 2-1) had four players in double-figures, led by 15 from Holly Golenor who shot 6-for-8 from the field. Shaelie Burgess added 11 points and posted a game-high eight rebounds while Halle Wright and Gemma Lavergne scored ten points apiece.
The Beacons remain in Salem for a Saturday evening clash with the Warriors, tipping off at 5:30 pm.
