Quest for NCAA Division III tournament bid comes to screeching halt for Willamette
Fourth-seeded University of Puget Sound upset top-seeded Willamette University 70-50 Friday night in the Northwest Conference women's basketball tournament in Salem.
The Bearcats, who won the regular season conference title, struggled early on their home court at Cone Field House, where they had won eight straight.
Puget Sound went on a 13-0 scoring run in the first quarter, including three 3-pointers, to take command. A 3-pointer by Kaitlin Imai in the closing seconds of the second quarter pulled the Bearcats within 32-22 at halftime.
Carolyn Ho hit a jump shot to start the third quarter, making it a single-digit deficit, but that was as close as Willamette would get. The Loggers pulled away, and the Bearcats never could make a move down the stretch.
Ho scored 16 points to lead the Bearcats, who finished the season 17-9. The day before the tournament, the senior guard was one of two Willamette players receiving first-team all-conference honors, along with junior guard Elyse Waldal.
Ho also was named defensive player of the year, and Willamette coach Peg Swadener was named coach of the year.
More: How Willamette went from underdog to target this season
Willamette entered the tournament red-hot, winning 12 of their final 14 regular season games. The Bearcats were playing in their third conference tournament and hosting their first, hoping for the program's first national tournament berth since 1995-96.
Puget Sound will play Pacific University at 6 p.m. tonight in the championship game to decide the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament. Pacific advanced to the title game with a 58-46 win against Whitman College.
Capi Lynn is a senior reporter for the Statesman Journal. Send comments, questions and tips to her at clynn@statesmanjournal.com, or follow her work on Twitter @CapiLynn and Facebook @CapiLynnSJ.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Puget Sound stuns top-seeded Willamette in NWC tournament
