WALLA WALLA — 300!
Walla Walla Community College women’s basketball coach Bobbi Hazeltine notched her 300th victory in her Warrior coaching career here Wednesday in NWAACC East Region women’s basketball action.
The Warriors ran to a 33-23 lead at the half, and continued to pull away from Spokane Community College en route to a 62-45 win to give Hazeltine her 300th WWCC win.
“It shows I’ve been here a long time,” Hazeltine quipped. “It’s nice and I know I’m the one that gets it (the credit), but every player and every assistant coach, it’s for them too.”
“I have not made a shot, a defensive stop, I haven’t taken a charge,” Hazeltine continued. “It’s all of them. It’s every girl from the very first team. It’s very rewarding and I appreciate being recognized.”
This one did not start out easy for the Warriors. The Sasquatch got a bucket from Alicia Christiansen to break an 11-all tie and ignite an 8-0 Spokane run. Dominque Pleasants buried a 3 for an 18-11 Sasquatch lead with 8:35 left in the half.
The Warriors ended the drought when Michelle Seitz fed post Hailey Felgenhauer for a bucket with 7:35 left. Behind Caitlin Duncan’s six points, the Warriors were off on a 20-5 run as Duncan’s scoop shot produced a 31-23 Warrior lead with 1:30 left.
“We started off really slow,” Duncan said. “We’re in our own gym and we don’t freak out if something isn’t going our way. We can settle down, re-group and get back into the game.
“Our coaches always tell us to attack pressure with pressure,” the DeSales alum continued. “My girl was right up in my face and I figured I might as well take the ball to the hole. All our other girls did a good job. People were spotting up for 3s and the post down low, we had an inside and outside game.”
Seitz ran an isolation and scored as time ran down to give the Warriors a 33-23 lead at intermission.
“Our sophomores don’t get rattled,” Hazeltine said. “We didn’t panic. We got down big, and I thought we were missing some easy shots and that we would be fine. We picked up the defensive intensity and played well.”
Spokane’s Morgan Freeman hit the first bucket of the second half, but Seitz answered with a deuce and a trey to run the Warrior lead to 38-25 two minutes into the second half. The Warriors turned it over to their defense and their rebounding as Spokane never got the lead under eight the rest of the way.
Walla Walla limited the Sasquatch to 24 percent shooting, 8-of-33, from the floor over the second 20 minutes.
A Duncan bucket with 6:31 left ran the Warrior lead to an insurmountable 56-34.
“We can’t control if our shots go in, but we can control our defense,” Duncan said. “We control being intense on defense, getting steals, and all up in their face. It’s a really important part of our game.”
And the backboards were owned by the Warriors. The Sasquatch, for the game, scored two second-chance points thanks to a 51-23 Warrior edge on the glass.
Seitz, who came in averaging 8.4 rebounds per game, led the way with 13 — nine in the second half. Felgenhauer grabbed nine and Allie Kelsey picked off eight.
“Our defense was good and our rebounding is always good,” Hazeltine said. “We lead the NWAACC in rebounding. If they miss a shot, we’re going and getting it. I’m proud of our kids.”
Seitz led the offense with 21 points, Felgenhauer added 17, and Duncan finished with 10.
Hazeltine improved to 300-106 lifetime at WWCC. Her Warriors ran their winning streak to 16 and improved to 17-1 overall and 6-0 in East play.
“It’s just awesome,” Duncan said of the 300th win. “Coach Hazeltine is an awesome coach, very well respected in the NWAACC. I’m so happy to be playing for her.”
The Warriors travel to Big Bend Saturday.
wWCC 62, spokane community college 45
SPOKANE (45) — Brons 1-7 3-4 5, Holsinger 5-17 2-2 13, Pleasants 1-2 0-0 3, Cook 1-5 0-0 2, Wilson 2-9 0-0 4, Williams 1-3 0-0 2, Corona 0-1 0-0 0, Christiansen 2-4 1-1 5, Freeman 5-14 1-1 11. Totals 18-62 7-8 45.
WALLA WALLA (62) — Seitz 9-22 1-2 21, Hawkins 1-4 1-2 3, Jordan 0-0 0-0 0, DeLong 1-2 0-0 2, Duncan 5-13 0-0 10, Rad 0-2 0-0 0, Felgenhauer 7-14 3-3 17, Kelsey 3-4 0-0 7, Siler 1-1 0-0 2, Stefanski 0-1 0-0 0, Anderson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 27-64 5-7 62.
Halftime — WWCC 33, SCC 23. 3-point goals — SCC 2-14 (Brons 0-2, Holsinger 1-6, Pleasants 1-1, Cook 0-2, Wilson 0-2, Corona 0-1), WWCC 3-12 (Seitz 2-5, Duncan 0-5, Kelsey 1-2). Total fouls — SCC 13, WWCC 9. Fouled out — none. Technical fouls — none. Rebounds — SCC 23 (Brons 5), WWCC 51 (Seitz 13). Turnovers — SCC 8, WWCC 18. Assists — SCC 6 (Cook 2), WWCC 13 (Duncan 4).
