A strong showing from the seniors on the Whitworth women’s basketball team was not enough to keep the Bucs from falling to the University of Puget Sound in the Northwest Conference tournament semifinal game on Thursday.
The Pirates fell behind early to the seventh-ranked Loggers, and couldn’t recover.
Whitworth had three players that scored in double-figures. Senior forward Cassie Pilkinton led the team with 13 points, senior post Liz Horiatis had 12 and senior guard Leah Pomante had 11.
But the top three players for Puget Sound put on an even more impressive display, scoring a combined 52 points.
The Pirates’ 14 turnovers proved to be costly.
“We could never get into rhythm because every time we made a mistake, UPS was able to capitalize and convert our turnovers into points,” said junior forward Keilah Fanene.
The Loggers used a strong first half effort that included a 12-2 run to take a 29-18 lead into halftime.
A flurry of three pointers from both teams made the second half interesting, but Puget Sound had an answer for everything the Pirates threw at them and never allowed their lead to get below 14 points.
Six seniors ended their playing careers for Whitworth on Thursday. Along with Pilkinton, Horiatis and Pomante, guard Heather Burke, guard Kim Bluff and forward Natalie Orrell all played their final game against UPS.
Despite losing these key players, the younger members of the team have a positive outlook for the future.
“I feel very confident in the skills of the girls returning,” Fanene said. “There is an obvious sense of trust with this group, and I know next year will be a building year for us, but there will be a lot of true team basketball.”
Contact Alex Blade at editor@whitworthian.com.
Women reflect on season success
Published: Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Updated: Tuesday, March 2, 2010
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