No. 7 Women’s Basketball Takes Down Linfield

WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Korin Baker led all performers with game highs of 20 points and 11 rebounds and led the No. 7 Whitman College women’s basketball team to a fourth-quarter surge and a 54-45 win over Linfield in Northwest Conference action on Saturday night at the Sherwood Center.

The meeting pitted the league’s top two teams but it was the Blues (16-1, 8-0 NWC) who rose to the top tonight and completed a perfect run through the first half of the conference season. The comeback win was preceded by a pregame ceremony honoring Carly Martin who last weekend scored her 1,000th career point for the Blues.

Allie Mead and Gillyn Landis both had a team-high 13 points for Wildcats who entered the night second in the NWC standings. Eve Burke added nine points and a team-best eight rebounds.

It was the toughest NWC test yet for the Blues who trailed by 10 points at halftime. Linfield had doubled up Whitman in the opening quarter and entered the break with a 30-20 lead. Whitman emerged from the locker room, returning to form and whittling the lead to as little as two points. Back-to-back buckets from Martin highlighted an 8-0 run that cut the lead to 32-28 with 5:16 to play. Amelia Solt kept the Blues at bay with a pair of three pointers, but Baker scored on the break late in the quarter to make it a two-point game again.

Martin nailed a three pointer early in the fourth quarter to put the Blues ahead for the first time since the early first moments of the game. Christiane Carlisle later added a three pointer as part of a 10-2 run that put Whitman up by eight points. While the offense clicked, the defense locked in and allowed only five Linfield points in the final period to seal the win. 

Whitman will spend the next two weekends on the road, first at Pacific Lutheran on Friday, Jan. 31. Tip time is set for 8:00 p.m.
 

#GoWhitman

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