The WWCC women’s basketball team defeated Tacoma, 72-54, on Saturday to salvage a weekend spit here at the Dietrich Dome.
Kate Renfro led the way for the Warriors with 20 points on 5-of-10 shooting with five three pointers.
With only a five-point lead after the first quarter, the Warriors made their move in the second quarter and pulled away, outscoring Tacoma 24-6 in the quarter.
The girls maintained their lead for the rest of the game and improved thier record to 3-2 overall, 2-2 in conference play.
They will travel to Pierce College next Friday, December 7 to take on Bellevue at 6 p.m.
For three quarters Walla Walla and Mount Hood played on relatively even terms during their first-round game Friday night in the Dietrich Dome.
But the Saints outscored the Warriors 17-9 in the first quarter and that led to Mount Hood’s 62-53 victory.
Ironically, it was a complete reversal of WWCC’s 73-65 victory over Mount Hood when the teams met Nov. 16 in Yakima in the season opener for both squads.
“We were a different team,” Warriors coach Bobbi Hazeltine said.
“Our offense didn’t get going until the fourth quarter,” the coach said. “And the stat sheet shows we had 15 turnovers, but I would double that. We brought it down and threw it away on every possession it seemed like.”
McKenzie Gunter and Renfro combined to score 41 points for the Walla Wallans, with Gunter accounting for 21 and Renfro 20. Combined, they made 15-of-30 shots from the field overall and were 9-for-17 from beyond the 3-point arc.
But the other nine Warriors who saw playing time accrued 12 points total on 5-for-22 shooting overall and 1-for-6 from outside the 3-point line.
“We had some guards who didn’t shoot it very well,” Hazeltine said.
Mount Hood got 19 points from Rachel Watson, who had been limited to 11 points when the teams met in Yakima.
Courtney Jackson scored 12 points and Madison Allen 11 for the Saints, who won for the fourth time in seven games.
For the Warriors, who entered the season on a 30-game winning streak and extended it to 32 in Yakima before losing to Columbia Basin in that tournament’s championship game, Friday’s loss saddled them with a two-game losing streak heading into Saturday’s game against Tacoma, which suffered a 54-43 first-round loss to CBC Friday.
