A wild offensive first quarter set the tone as the SFU Clan women’s basketball team rode the wave to their sixth straight win, a 101-89 win over the Northwest Nazarene Crusaders last week.
The victory, which bolstered SFU’s record to 14-2, including 5-1 in conference play, comes nearly exactly two years after the Clan last broke the 100-point plateau, in 103-86 win on Jan. 8, 2015, again over the Crusaders.
All five SFU starters broke the double-digit mark in scoring, as veteran guard Ellen Kett pocketed a game-high 22 points, eight assists, and five boards. Junior forward Rachel Fradgley knocked down 20 points – going 10-for-11 in field goal attempts – and seven rebounds, while Elissa Homer scored 18 points and three assists.
Freshman forward Ozi Nwabuko added 15 points and four rebounds, while senior captain Meg Wilson added 14 points.
The Clan put up a season-high 33 points in the opening quarter against the Crusaders, with Kett’s 10 points leading the charge. They also shot the lights out from beyond the arc, going a collective 4-for-4 from long distance.
“I thought in the first quarter, we were outstanding, and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the game,” said SFU head coach Bruce Langford. “(Northwest is) a really good offensive team, and we let them get to the line too much, but overall I thought we did a nice job of staying in the flow and making good on our opportunities.”
Behind the shooting of Kett and Homer, as well as the interior presence of Nwabuko and Fradgley, the Clan stretched their lead to 19 at one point, taking a 51-32 lead on the back of an absolutely dominant 12-3 stretch midway through the second quarter.
The Clan’s outside shooting from the first half afforded them more room inside in the second, as the third quarter saw Wilson knock down eight points, while Fradgley chipped in with six.
While getting into foul trouble over the final 20 minutes, SFU’s impressive finishing skills kept them in the lead, by at least 12 points ahead in the second half.
In fact, that ended up as the final margin of victory for the Clan.
“We’ll need to be better defensively, definitely,” assessed Langford. “But that was as good an offensive performance as we’ve seen this year. Kett was excellent all-around, Fradgley had her best game of the year, and we got contributions from all over.”
The Clan will now try and ride that momentum into this weekend, with a game Saturday against Saint Martin’s Saints (5-9, 1-5) in the West Gym. Tip-off time is 7 p.m.
