After three defeats straight on the road — a losing streak not seen by the Clan since their inaugural NCAA season in 2010-11 — the women’s basketball team won at home Thursday night.
Facing the Central Washington Wildcats, the Clan played their best game defensively, keeping the Wildcats to a mere 50 points — a season best.
“The team really showed some grit,” said head coach Bruce Langford. “I thought the best thing was [that] defensively, we’re as good as we’ve been all year.”
Despite the end result, it was the Wildcats who opened up the scoring with a three-pointer by team point leader Jasmine Parker. Initially, it looked like it might be a close game between the two teams, who shared the same number of conference wins with six each.
However, the Clan really pulled ahead by way of their shooting behind the three-point line. Two straight threes turned a measly 13–10 lead into a nine point lead — a lead that that would only balloon from there, at one point reaching 36 points.
SFU went seven for 12 behind the three-point line in the first half, only to improve to shooting nine in the second half, missing only two.
In the first half, the scoring was spread throughout the team, with guard Katie Lowen leading the team in points with 10. However, the second half more or less became the Erin Chambers show, as she put up 16 out of her 25 points in that half.
As a sign of how well SFU was playing defensively, in the second half, the Clan went 6:12 without allowing the Wildcats a single point. It should be noted that coming into this game SFU allowed on average 72.1 points per game, an average that placed them as the second-worst scoring defence in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC).
In the closing minutes of the game, two Clan players who hadn’t seen much action — at least on the scoresheet — put up some numbers. Freshman Perrine Fuchs, who played only five minutes and only 13 previous points, threw a long range three-pointer with 1:38 left. This was her third straight game with a three-pointer.
The rest of the game would belong to Division I transfer Alisha Roberts who put up eight points in a period of 1:10.
The Wildcats would have the last two points — a buzzer beater — but not the last laugh. The Clan won by a margin of 84–50.
With the victory, SFU takes sole possession of fourth place with a record of 7–5. On Saturday, they will take on the North Nazarene Crusaders, who are currently second-last in the GNAC, along with the conference-worst scoring defence.
Chambers will have a chance of becoming second all-time in GNAC scoring, only two points behind the current second place record holder. She is only 81 points behind first place with six more games to go.
SFU
Points: 84
Field Goals: 31–58 (53.4%)
3 Pointers: 16–23 (69.6%)
Free Throws: 6–8 (75.0%)
CWU
Points: 50
Field Goals: 18–49 (36.7%)
3 Pointers: 7–18 (38.9%)
Free Throws: 7–15 (46.7%)
Player of the Game: Ellen Kett
Although she didn’t end up on top of the scoresheet, Ellen Kett’s solid defensive contributions early on no doubt helped pave the way to the Clan victory. As well, she did her part on the three point line going three for four on three point field goals.
Points: 9
Assists: 2
Rebounds (Off-Def): 0–5
