Feb. 23, 2008
Box Score
BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Forward Leada Berkey scored 14 of her game-high 17 points in two critical stretches as Western Oregon University defeated Western Washington University, 65-57, in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball game Saturday on Haggen Court at Sam Carver Gymnasium.
Forward Gabby Wade (So., Lacey/River Ridge) scored a team-high 15 points for the Vikings, who slipped to 8-19 overall and 5-10 in the GNAC. Western Oregon improved to 8-15 overall and 4-10 in the GNAC. The Wolves swept their two-game road trip despite entering the week having lost 11 of the previous 13 games.
Western Washington jumped to a 7-0 lead less than four minutes into the game, with guard Amanda Dunbar (R-Fr., Marysville/Marysville-Pilchuck), who finished with 14 points, scoring all seven by hitting three straight shots.
The Vikings still were up by seven, 19-12, with a little over nine minutes left in the first half. Western Oregon went on a 9-2 run, with Berkey scoring the final seven points, to tied the score, 21-21, with 6:25 to go, and eventually took a 31-30 lead at halftime as guard Alison Crumb scored with two seconds left in the period.
Western Oregon led the rest of the way as it opened the second half with a 12-2 charge to take a 43-32 advantage with 15:49 left. Berkey again had seven points in the run. The senior extended her career scoring total to 1,499, just 21 points short of the Western Oregon record.
The Vikings were still down by nine with less than three minutes to play. Wade scored five points in a 10-second span to narrow the margin to four, 57-53, with 2:36 to go, but that was as close as Western Washington could get.
Crumb finished with 15 points for Western Oregon, as did forward Vanessa Wyffels, who also grabbed eight rebounds.
Forward Claire Pallansch (Jr., Redmond) had 12 points and nine rebounds for Western Washington, which completed its home schedule 5-7, the first losing home record in school history.
Western, which has had 93 player-games missed with injury this season and used 16 different starting lineups, next travels to University of Alaska Fairbanks on Thursday (7 p.m.) for a GNAC counter.
