Tuesday, March 19, 2013
BELLINGHAM, Wash. - MVP Corinn Waltrip scored a game-high 29 points to lift Western Washington to a 75-58 triumph over Simon Fraser in Tuesday’s NCAA Division II West Regional Women's championship game before a crowd of 1,129 at Sam Carver Gymnasium.
The Vikings (28-3), the No.1 seed in the West Region and ranked fifth in the USA Today NCAA Division II Top 25 National Poll, earned their first West Regional championship since 2000. They will face South Region champion Nova Southeastern in a national quarterfinal at San Antonio, Tex., next Tuesday (Mar. 26).
Simon Fraser, the No.2 seed and ranked No.11 nationally, concluded its season 25-6. Center Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe, the GNAC Player of the Year, had 19 points and eight rebounds. Seventeen of her points came in the first half.
WWU held a narrow 41-40 lead early in the second half, but ran off 10 straight points in a two-minute span to establish a 51-40 lead with 11:28 to play, the biggest of the game to that point. SFU never got closer than eight points after that.
Waltrip was 10-of-15 from the field, including 5-of-9 on 3-pointers. Center Britt Harris and forward Trishi Williams each had 11 points for the Vikings, who shot 54.2 percent (26-of-48) from the floor, including 8-of-16 (50.0 percent) on treys.
Carla Wyman came off the bench to score 10 points for the Clan.
SFU used a run of six straight points to take the biggest lead of the first half (28-22) with 4:55 remaining, and still was up six 29-23 with under three minutes to go in the period. But the Vikings closed with a 9-1 run, including seven by Waltrip, giving WWU a 32-30 halftime lead.
“The turning point was the last few minutes of the first half,” said WWU coach Carmen Dolfo. “We finally picked up our defense. In the second half, we came out and did the same thing. That’s our bread and butter, when we play well defensively, our offense gets going.”
WWU is now 16-0 at home and has 20 consecutive victories at Carver Gym over the last two seasons.
Joining Waltrip on the region all-tournament team were Raincock-Ekunwe, Harris, Judy Jones of Grand Canyon, and Brittani Jefferson of Cal State Monterrey Bay.