VANCOUVER, Wash. — Walla Walla completed a successful three-games-in-three-days women’s community college basketball road trip here Sunday with a 65-56 victory over Clark.
The Warriors began their Willamette Valley weekend Friday with a 76-60 victory at Chemeketa in Salem, Ore., and followed up with a 79-55 win at Portland on Saturday.
The Penguins proved to be WWCC’s stiffest challenge of the weekend as they rallied from 15 points down late in the third quarter to pull within a single point in the fourth period. But sophomore shooting guard Kayla Green drained back-to-back 3-pointers that enabled Walla Walla to regain control.
“Those shots were huge,” Warriors coach Bobbi Hazeltine said. “She puts in so much time, and she hadn’t been able to buy a basket the whole weekend. But she came through and helped us pull away.”
Green finished with 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting from the floor and was one of three Warriors in double figures. Freshman Kate Ferenz was 6-for-12 from the field — all of them 3-point attempts — and led the Warriors with 18 points, and sophomore post Tiffani Dennis added 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting.
“Obviously, Kate Ferenz is shooting the ball very well for us,” Hazeltine said. “And Tiffani came off the bench for us again and did a great job. She had a really good road trip.”
Dennis scored a career-high 22 points in Friday’s victory on 9-for-10 shooting from the floor and chipped in with six points in the victory over Portland.
“After not playing very much last year, she knew she might be a big post player for us coming into this season,” Hazeltine said of Dennis. “And then she got beat out by Emily Hancock and Tabitha Wellsandt.
“But players get into foul trouble, and Tabitha picked up some quick ones Sunday. Tiffani was ready. She came in and played well, and that’s good to see because we are going to need her going forward.”
Kennedy Corrigan and Emily Hancock scored eight points each for WWCC, and Hancock snagged seven rebounds as the Warriors controlled the backboards 43-34. Ferenz had eight assists to go with her 18 points.
Molly Franklin scored 12 points and Bryn Tennyson picked off seven rebounds to lead Clark.
Sunday’s victory bumped WWCC’s season record to 7-2 while Clark slipped to 5-3.
The Warriors will be right back at it beginning Thursday when they host an NWAC crossover tournament in the Dietrich Dome. Walla Walla faces Whatcom at 7 p.m., preceded by Clark vs. Everett at 1 p.m., Clackamas vs. Yakikma at 3 p.m. and Highline vs. Chemeketa at 5 p.m.
The tournament continues through Saturday.
“The fact that we don’t have to travel again this week is really nice,” Hazeltine said. “There’s a lot of responsibility putting a tournament like this on, but I have a lot of help. The fact that we can sleep in our own beds and not travel, I’m really glad about that.”
