Morgan Swaim | Staff Writer
After taking a long road trip to Alaska, the Wolves finally returned home on Jan. 16 to play the Concordia University Cavaliers and the Montana State-Billings Yellowjackets on Jan. 18. Coming into the game against the Cavaliers, both teams found themselves locked right in the middle of the GNAC conference standings, with the Wolves gaining a game on the Cavaliers in the 68-51 victory. But they got stung in the game against the Yellowjackets, 65-56, suffering their third home loss of the year.
The first game was a back and forth affair until the end of the third quarter, with the Wolves clinging to a 43-40 lead. In the fourth, the team ran away with the game. This was lead by five minutes of superb defense that produced turnovers and forced missed shots on the Wolves’s end. Concordia only managed four points during that time frame.
The defense helped the Wolves jump out to a seven point lead in the final five minutes, and by that point, there was no looking back. With the game barely out of reach as time was winding down, all the Wolves had to do was continue to knock down free throws. Junior guard, Sydney Azorr, had 7 of her 15 points in the last two minutes as the team poured on points late to ice the game. Over the course of the game, the Wolves shot 19 of 20 from the charity stripe, which comes as no surprise as they lead the entire conference in free throw shooting percentage.
The Wolves versus the Yellowjackets was a race neck and neck heading into the fourth. This time it was the Wolves who started slow in the fourth, being held scoreless for the first 4:53 of the final period.
The scoring drought proved to be too much to overcome as the Yellowjackets jumped out to an eight point lead and kept the game out of reach. Junior, Natalie DeLonge, lead the way for Western as she scored 16 points and hauled in six rebounds. Azorr was also able to find success, primarily on the glass were she grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
The past week of games brings the team’s record to 8-8 with another slate of home contests on the schedule for this week. On Thursday, Jan. 25, the team will be hosting Northwest Nazarene. Then, the Wolves will be looking to defeat Central Washington on Saturday, Jan 27. Both games will be at 7:00 p.m.
Contact the author at mswaim16@wou.edu
Photo by: wouwolves.com
