Walla Walla Community College closed out the non-league portion of its women’s basketball schedule with an 84-44 victory over the Pacific University junior varsity squad.
It was the eighth straight victory for the Warriors, who will take an 11-2 record into Saturday’s Northwest Athletic Conference East Region opener against Treasure Valley. Tipoff is slated for 2 p.m. in the dome.
The Warriors played without freshman sharpshooter Kate Ferenz, who went down with a knee injury in a Saturday afternoon practice. But it didn’t seem to slow down WWCC, which raced to a 46-24 halftime lead and continued to pull away from the young Boxers in the second half.
A pair of WWCC posts, sophomore Tiffani Dennis and freshman Tabitha Wellsandt, scored 14 points each and sophomore point guard Kennedy Corrigan added 12 to lead a balanced offense. Wellsandt was 7-for-10 from the field and Dennis was 7-for-13 as the Warriors shot 51 percent from the field for the game.
Without Ferenz, one of the top 3-point shooters in the entire NWAC, in the lineup, WWCC put up only 14 3-point attempts and made six of them for 43 percent. The Boxers were limited to 27 percent (15-for-55) from the field overall and 20 percent (4-for-20) from beyond the 3-point line.
Walla Walla also outrebounded Pacific 52-29, led by Wellsandt’s nine rebounds and six for Dennis.
“We had a definite advantage inside,” Warriors coach Bobbi Hazeltine said. “They only had one big kid and we made an effort to go inside, and Tabitha (Wellsandt) had a great game and Tiffani (Dennis) continued to play well for us. And our guards did a great job of getting them the ball.”
Freshman Emily Hancock, who had been sidelined with a hip injury, made 4-of-5 shots in her return to the court and scored eight points, as did freshman reserve guard Marquel Greene.
Hazeltine said the extent of Ferenz’s knee injury was not yet known.
“Since it happened on the weekend, she didn’t get to see a doctor,” Hazeltine said. “She had two different trainers look at it, and it doesn’t look good right now. We are keeping our fingers crossed, but you never know with knee injuries.”
