After losing three straight games on the road, the Clan rebounded with two straight victories at home. Facing the Northwest Nazarene Crusaders in a rare Saturday afternoon game, they posted an 83–67 victory, mainly due to their confidence on three-point line — a key factor in their last victory as well.
“We all got in the gym and got some extra shots up,” commented forward Meg Wilson. “It’s just confidence and knowing you can shoot. We had a lot of extra passes so our threes were open which makes them a lot easier to shoot.”
The three-point line can also be looked as an area of defensive achievement, as the Clan did not allow a single three-pointer by the Crusaders.
Northwest Nazarene put up the first field goal of the game, but after this initial drive, the Crusaders never held another lead the whole game — or even a tie, for that matter.
Erin Chambers opened the scoring for the Clan with a three-pointer, to be followed by another three from guard Katie Lowen, who finished the game with 18 points.
Much of the first half was marked by long stretches where SFU scored uninterrupted, keeping the Crusaders off the board. One notable instance was at the end of the first half, when SFU shot three straight threes, two of them from Chambers. The first ended with a score of 44–28 in SFU’s favour.
And it did not stop there. The Clan scored seven more straight points to open the second half, taking a commanding 23 point lead.
However, the Crusaders were not ready to throw in the towel just yet, putting up point runs of their own, and at one point cutting the Clan’s lead down to 10.
Although the effort was good enough to give the Crusaders a tie for second half scoring at 39–39, SFU’s first half lead was too much to overcome, and the game closed with a final three-pointer by Chambers.
“I think it was really important for us to get back this week and get back to what we know we can do,” said Wilson, who finished with nine points in 23 minutes of playing time.
The Clan now aims to take the momentum of these two home wins on the road. They will face Great Northwest Athletic Conference leaders the Western Oregon Wolves on Thursday, to whom SFU has not lost a game since the 2011–12 season.
SFU
Points: 83
Field Goals: 28–63 (44.4%)
3 Pointers: 15–38 (39.5%)
Free Throws: 12–16 (75.0%)
NNU
Points: 50
Field Goals: 23–66 (34.8%)
3 Pointers: 0–6 (0.0%)
Free Throws: 21–26 (80.8%)
Player of the Game: Erin Chambers
Erin Chambers put up another stellar night, as she inches closer to the GNAC scoring record, Already in second place, Chambers put up 32 points, only two short of her career-high 34. Now, she is only 59 points back on the all-time record of 1831 points, with five games remaining.
Points: 32
Assists: 6
Rebounds (Off-Def): 2–9
