Portland, Ore. | Warner Pacific snapped an Oregon Tech 10-game win streak with their 68-55 victory over the Lady Owls on Saturday night. Gabriella Bruno led all players in scoring with 24 points. The Junior was just two boards shy of a double-double.
 
 
"Our bench was huge!" Coach Matt Gregg had to say after the game. "We had four starters sitting the entire 4^th quarter and the group on the floor executed and were flat out making plays." Courtney Jackson scored 20 points off the bench for Coach Gregg's Knights. Together, Bruno and Jackson combined for 48 of the teams 66 points.
 
The Knights trailed by as many as 14 points with just 12 minutes to play, but thanks to the 33 bench points, Warner Pac was able to complete the comeback and steal a win from the No. 1 team in the CCC.
 
The first half was dominated by the Lady Owls who came out to a 12-1 lead in the first five minutes of play and shot for 53% from the field and 60% from beyond the arc in the half. Heading into the break, the Knights trailed 38-26.
 
After the halftime gathering, Gabriella Bruno scored four straight points to chip away at the lead. The Knights then went 5:30 without scoring, allowing OIT to stretch out the lead to 14. That's when the WPU bench came alive, making the extra passes and finding the bottom of the net. Thanks to a Courtney Jackson 8-0 run, Warner Pacific had cut the lead to six with ten minutes to play.
 
The Knights opened up the final quarter of play with back-to-back-to-back Bruno and Jackson buckets, going on a 9-0 run between the two and ultimately taking the lead from the Lady Owls with six minutes left. Freshman Anna Farner perhaps had the three largest plays of the game; one assist to Bruno for an old fashioned 3-point play, another assist to Jackson for an And-One and the back-door cut to score the bucket to make it a three-possession game with just 67 seconds remaining.
 
As the clock was ticking closer to zero and the Lady Owls were forced to foul, Celeste Pantoja and Genna Schoen both sunk two free throws to seal the victory.
 
OIT's Courtney Clemmer had 22 points and 10 rebounds.
Mya Kirzy had 6 rebounds for the Knights.
 
The Knights move to 7-8 overall and 4-3 in CCC and will be on the road next weekend as they take on the Beacons of Northwest Christian University with a 5:30 tip-off.