SALEM, Ore. – With an 80-50 win over the Willamette Bearcats on Saturday night, the Lewis & Clark women's basketball team clinched the No. 1 seed in the Northwest Conference Tournament. The Pioneers were led by 12 points from senior Christina Herring and Megan Spence.
The win improves the Pioneers to 20-5 at the end of the regular season and 14-2 in conference play. The Pioneers and the George Fox Bruins, who defeated Linfield tonight, end the season as the Northwest Conference Co-Champions. The Pioneers will be the No. 1 seed in the tournament, while the Bruins earn the No. 2 seed.
The regular season championship is the first for the women's basketball program since transitioning to Division III. The last time the Pioneers earned a regular season conference championship was in 1993-94 when the program was a part of the NAIA.
The women's basketball team and Pioneer women's cross country become the first women's programs at Lewis & Clark to win Northwest Conference Championships in the same year. The last time a pair of women's teams earned a conference championship in the same year was in 1979 when the softball, tennis and swimming programs all earned WCIC Championships. The last time the Pioneers had two teams earn Northwest Conference Championships in the same year was 1978 when both the baseball and golf programs finished on top.
Juli Fulks finishes the regular season with her best season as head coach of the Pioneers, earning her first 20 win season. The last time the Pioneers ended the season with 20+ wins was in 1993-94 when they earned the conference championship. Fulks, who took over the program in 2004, has now led the Pioneers to back-to-back playoff appearances.
Herring finished the night 4-of-7 from the floor and 3-of-3 from the free-throw line. Spence was a perfect 6-of-6 from the charity stripe, while hitting 3-of-6 from the floor. Junior Margaret Dowling finished the night with the games only double-double, knocking down 11 points and pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds. Sophomore Kristina Williams chipped in 11 points in the victory, while Neva Hauser contributed nine points.
All but one of the Pioneers saw action in the milestone victory, with each player contributing either points or rebounds.
The Bearcats were led by a game-high 15 points from Erin Barclay, while teammate Kaileigh Westermann scored 10.
Defensively, the Pioneers doubled the Bearcats in rebounds, pulling down 43 boards to the Bearcats 20. Lewis & Clark held the Bearcats to just 29.2% shooting in the first half.
The field for the four-team Northwest Conference Tournament is now set, with first-round games Thursday at 7 p.m. Lewis & Clark gets the No.1 seed by virtue of its sweep of UPS and will host No. 4 Whitman College, while No. 2 George Fox hosts No. 3 Puget Sound. The highest-seeded winner will host the title game Saturday at 7:00 p.m. for the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament.
