Press Release
1/27- WHITWORTH 66, GEORGE FOX 57: Bruins Fall into Third Place in NWC with Road Loss to Pirates
SPOKANE, Wash. - Pre-season All-American Kim Leith scored 29 points, 21 in the second half as the George Fox University Bruins staged a valiant but futile comeback attempt and dropped a 66-57 decision to the Whitworth College Pirates in a Northwest Conference women's basketball game Friday night here at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.
George Fox, ranked 10th in the latest WBCA poll and 14th in the D3hoops.com poll, suffered its second loss in the last three games and fell to 15-3 overall and 6-3 in the conference. Picked in the pre-season to successfully defend their 2005 NWC crown, the Bruins instead fell out of a second-place tie with the University of Puget Sound into third place, two full games behind league-leading Pacific Lutheran University. Whitworth, with its 4th straight win, improved to 11-6 overall and 5-4 in conference play.
Emily Hendrickson scored 12 of her team-leading 19 points in the first half to help the Pirates open up a 15-point lead. Whitworth shot 50% (14-28) in the half and never trailed after a Hendrickson jumper gave the Pirates a 10-8 lead. Two Hendrickson free throws gave Whitworth a 37-22 lead with two minutes to play in the half, and the Bucs eventually went to the locker room with a 39-25 edge.
After the Pirates opened the second half with a basket by Teresa Zeitler to open up their largest lead of the game, George Fox went on a 14-2 run, led by Leith, who scored 8 of those points to spark the Bruins to within 45-41 with 13:36 to play. Another basket by Leith cut the Whitworth lead to 47-46 with 9:40 to play, but the Pirates responded with an 11-2 run, Hendrickson scoring 7 of them, over the next five minutes to open up a 58-48 edge with 4:42 to go.
The Bruins made one final push, out-scoring the Pirates 7-2 to get within 60-55 with 30 seconds to play on a basket by Erin Powers. The Pirates' Holly Ridings was 6-6 from the line over the final 30 seconds, however, to secure the victory for Whitworth.
Leith was 11-28 from the field, including 5-12 from three-point range, in recording her season high in points, and also grabbed a team-high 9 boards. Tiffany Behary added 11 points for the Bruins.
Hendrickson made 7-11 shots en route to her 19 points and grabbed a team-high 9 rebounds to lead Whitworth in both categories. Ridings was the only other double-figure scorer with 11 points.
George Fox continues its road swing through eastern Washington Saturday, taking on Whitman College at 6 p.m. in Walla Walla. Whitworth remains home to take on Linfield College, also at 6 p.m. Both games will be followed by men's NWC contests at 8 p.m.