Salem, Ore. | After a dominating performance in Eugene last night, the Warner Pacific University Women's Basketball team (8-10, 6-7) suffered a setback at C.E. Jeffers Sports Center, falling to the Corban University Warriors (4-17, 3-11) in overtime, 70-76.
 
The Knights and Warriors traded baskets for the first five minutes, with the Knights holding a slight three-point edge heading into the first media timeout. Warner Pacific's full-court press continues to be a pain in the side of opposing offenses, as the Warriors had committed five turnovers in the first five minutes of play.
 
Not everything was clicking for WPU defensively, as early foul trouble forced the Knights to look to their bench for support in a game that they desperately needed as many bodies in the post as possible against a towering Warriors backcourt. Corban utilized this to their advantage to finish out the first quarter, with the Knights trailing by three-points, 13-16.
 
An extremely lopsided foul count of 15-5 in favor of the Warriors left Warner Pacific in quite the predicament heading to the halftime break, as three different Knights had three personal fouls each through the first 20 minutes played this afternoon.
 
Senior guard Lynden Harry carried the first half offense for Warner Pacific, scoring 11 points by hitting 50% of her three-point attempts, along with a midrange floater that managed to fall in her favor. Meanwhile, senior guard Anna Farner hauled in five rebounds to lead the Knights in the post.
 
Corban's Alyssa Wyllie and Gracie McCoy led the charge for the Warriors through the first half with each scoring nine points, while Gemma LaVergne was all over the court cashing in seven points, five rebounds, and four assists.
 
A visit to the locker room was exactly what the Knights needed to get back in this game, as they busted out of the halftime pause on a 14-4 run that gave them a four-point edge over the Warriors with just under five minutes remaining in the third quarter. The full-court press defense by Warner Pacific forced multiple consecutive turnovers for Corban, leading to a handful of offensive opportunities for WPU.
 
A huge uptick in overall intensity is exactly what Warner Pacific was looking for to get back into this contest, as their defensive pressure and offensive success finally came to fruition in the third quarter, holding an eight-point advantage with one final quarter of play to go.
 
An exchanging of offensive runs by both teams dominated the beginning of the fourth quarter, as the Knights stretched their lead to 12 points, only to see the lead dwindle back to seven as the officials called the final media timeout of the afternoon.
 
With four minutes remaining in the contest, Corban had begun to find the cracks in the WPU defensive press, chopping the Warner Pacific lead back to only a single possession with under three minutes to play, the score sitting at 62-59.
 
Another quick free throw and a jumper from just inside the three-point line, and the Warriors has crawled their way back into this game. WPU's offensive threats that had dominated the entire second half were finding a lid on their basket, failing to convert on any possession they could muster under the three-minute mark.
 
Fortunately for the Knights, scoreless possessions would dominate both teams to finish the regulation time of this game, as LaVergne missed a final heave attempt with 4.7 seconds remaining to send everyone at the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center to an overtime period.
 
However, as the laws of nature clearly state, all things that go up, must come down. Just as the Knights had managed to find a consistent scoring attack in the overtime period, an onslaught of fouls and missed free throws left Warner Pacific with a short bench to manage the rest of this game, and the Warriors took advantage to close this game out with the 76-70 win over the Knights.
 
While WPU held the turnover-margin in check by committing only 15 giveaways to the Warriors' 22, Corban benefited in large to a whopping 35 free throw attempts, converting on 29 of those tries from the charity stripe. The Knights were unable to cash in their few free throw opportunities at any consistent level, scoring on eight of their 17 attempts. Warner Pacific saw four different players foul out in this game, while Corban only sweated out a single player that finished with four fouls.
 
Knights' senior forward Hannah Myers rebounded nicely in the second half before five fouls put her on the bench, scoring 15 points, collecting eight rebounds, and dishing out seven assists. Harry finished with 14 points and four assists in 42 minutes played.
 
LaVergne finished the evening with 18 points, including 14 points on 15 attempts from the free-throw line, along with seven rebounds. Warriors' forwards Madison Hodnett and Kaci Paffhausen dominated the glass, posting double-doubles with 21 points 15 rebounds for Hodnett, partnered with 14 points and 18 boards for Paffhausen.
 
Warner Pacific has a quick turnaround heading into their next week of conference play, as they will play host to crosstown rival Multnomah University on Tuesday, January 25^th at 5:30pm PDT. As a reminder, Warner Pacific University has made the decision to not allow outside fans for the upcoming week of home games, in an attempt to lower the increase in recent COVID-19 cases. All games will be available for free at www.wpuknights.com.