SENIOR NIGHT SPOTLIGHT

EUGENE, Ore. – An upset-minded Walla Walla women's basketball team made it interesting, but in the end Bushnell pulled out a 71-67 victory on senior night to secure a top-four finish in the Cascade Collegiate Conference.
 
The pesky Wolves (2-25, 1-19 CCC) trailed by five points after the opening quarter but battled back to tie the contest at halftime, 31-31. WWU continued to apply pressure after the intermission and held a late lead in the third quarter, before Bushnell took over.
 
The Beacons (17-11, 14-6 CCC) pulled out to lead by as many as eight over the final ten minutes and secured the game at the free-throw line, hitting 10 of 12 attempts in the fourth.
 
Head Coach Chad Meadors said, "What a tough game tonight. It was a battle all night long and we got it done. We certainly didn't play our best. We made some great plays and had good looks all night long. Unfortunately, we missed a lot of them. We battled in the fourth quarter and Aspen really had a nice game. We got some great contributions from a lot of players and it was nice to have all of our seniors out there at the tip, and out there making plays to get us off to a good start."
 
All four Bushnell seniors got the start on Saturday night with both Claire Salness and Ariana Fuselier hitting early three-pointers. Alyssa Kuskie played eleven minutes and Morgan McKinney completed her final regular-season home game with three points, six rebounds, and four assists.
 
With a lot of fire power among the reserves, Bushnell ended the night with a 51-0 advantage in points off the bench. Junior Aspen Slifka was chief among them, finishing the night with a double-double as she secured game-highs with 22 points, ten rebounds, and two blocks, adding four assists. Aly Mirabile scored 11 points and had four steals as the only non-senior in the starting lineup and she matched Slifka with three triples. Bella Pedrojetti added ten points off the bench.
 
Walla Walla was led by Jaliyah Casem who scored 21 points along with a game-high five assists. The Wolves scored 19 points off of 15 Beacon turnovers, due in large part to the efforts of Paulina Quintana who collected six steals to go with her 14-point performance. Isabella Robles added 15 points and Carolina Montes scored 12.
 
Bushnell will close out the regular season on the road, playing at Northwest University on Friday and Evergreen State on Saturday. The Beacons will return home on February 22 for the CCC quarterfinals. Their opponent could be anyone currently sitting in fifth through eighth place as the four teams are separated by just two games with two games to play.