SALEM, Ore. – Senior Elyse Waldal netted a career and season-high 25 points, including 15 points in the third quarter, on 6-of-9 shooting from the field knocking down three shots from long distance, as Willamette University's women's basketball team picked up its third win of the season with a wire-to-wire victory, 87-53, over the visiting Banana Slugs of the University of California, Santa Cruz Monday evening inside Cone Field House.
With tonight's win, Willamette improves to 3-4 overall. Meanwhile, UC Santa Cruz falls to 4-8 on the season.
Waldal led a trio of Bearcat players in double figures aided offensively by Kaitlin Imai and Gio Horner, who tallied 15 and 14 points, respectively. Eight of Willamette's 12 players that saw action tonight tallied at least three points, as the Bearcats got 25 points from the bench that included eight points apiece from Maya Sanders and Alexis Dockter. On the boards, Daisy Boling-Schmidt and Imai grabbed a game-high tying eight rebounds each with Imai handing out a game-best seven assists. Imai fell a mere two rebounds and three assists shy of a triple-double, while also tallying a game-high four steals for Willamette.
The Bearcats started the game on a 10-2 run highlighted by back-to-back three-pointers from Waldal and Imai in the game's opening 74 seconds, while Horner added four more points capped by a lay up at the seven-minute mark for the early advantage. Willamette pushed its lead to nine points (13-4) on another Imai three-pointer, as Santa Cruz would get within seven points (15-8) on an Alexa Litchev lay-in with just over four minutes on the clock. Over the next four minutes, the host Bearcats used a 10-5 run to pull ahead by 14 points (23-9) on a Sanders' three-pointer with less than 49 seconds remaining in the opening quarter. Santa Cruz's Emilie Ngo capped the scoring over the opening 10 minutes on a jump shot for the final difference of 12 points (23-11) after the first quarter of action.
Willamette started the second quarter with another Imai three-pointer before Santa Cruz used a 10-6 run over a six-plus minute span to pull within single digits at 29-21 on a Ngo jump shot that forced the Bearcats to call a timeout with 3:34 left in the first half. Coming out of the break, Willamette put together a 7-4 run to pull ahead by 11 points (36-25) on another Imai three-pointer, which was her fourth shot from long distance in the opening half, with just under two minutes left in the second quarter. UCSC's Claire Galbo would get the visiting Banana Slugs within eight points (36-28) before Emma Floyd scored the final points of the opening half on Willamette's 10th three-pointer of the game, as the Bearcats secured a 39-28 advantage at halftime.
The third quarter started with a tip-in by Santa Cruz's Jenna Gorton to pull the Banana Slugs within nine points (39-30) before Waldal tallied 12 of the game's next 20 points, including five straight buckets to put the home team in front by a score of 51-38 with 4:40 on the clock. Willamette continued to add to its lead over the final four-plus minutes, as the Bearcats concluded the third quarter holding a 16-point lead (61-45) with Horner netting the final points on a lay-in with less than one minute to go.
Over a span of five-plus minutes between the end of the third and start of the fourth quarter, Willamette scored 11 unanswered points to pull in front by a score of 71-45 that included five points by Waldal and four from Horner. With 85 seconds left in the game, Willamette secured its largest lead of the evening (87-51) on a Addie Hiler lay-in as the Bearcats secured their largest margin of victory this season with the final difference being 34 points (87-53). This would be Willamette's largest margin of victory since the Bearcats defeated Lewis & Clark by 32 points (61-29) on January 26, 2022.
Santa Cruz was led offensively by Ngo and Litchev with 16 points each, while Galbo was the only other Banana Slug in double figures with 13 points. On the boards, Ngo grabbed a team-leading seven rebounds to go along with three assists and a team-leading three steals.
As a team, Willamette was a combined 34-for-68 (50.0%) from the field, 14-for-31 (45.2%) from three-point range, and 5-of-8 (62.5%) at the free throw line. On the other hand, Santa Cruz was a combined 24-for-56 (42.9%) from the field, 2-of-15 (13.3%) from long distance, and 3-of-10 (30.0%) at the charity stripe.
Willamette returns to the hardwood tomorrow night – Tuesday, December 17 – against No. 14-ranked Washington & Lee University beginning at 6:00 PM inside Cone Field House.
