Seniors Lead Warriors to Win Over Knights

Brianne Carras turned in a double-double performance with a team-high 19-points and game-high 11 rebounds for the Warriors.

Corban senior Brianne Carras. Photo: Corban Athletics

SALEM - Seniors Brianne Carras, Tosha Wilson, and Kendall Dionne helped lead Corban's women's basketball team to a victory over the Knights of Warner Pacific, 78-64, thanks to a combined 43 points and 26 rebounds to extend the Warriors' winning streak to five games on Saturday.

It was all down hill from the get go as the Warriors opened with a 12-2 advantage with 16:23 left in the first half after Wilson fed senior Jessi Norton with a pass that turned into a quick lay-up for the latter.

Relentless, Corban pursued a 17-point lead nearly five minutes later when Norton found Dionne with a pass that was quickly turned into a lay-in that made the score 23-6 with 11:56 remaining before the break.

Just over one minute later (10:34), junior Jessica Steigleman converted a patented running jumper in the paint to make the game 25-12 and establish herself as the 11th player in Corban women's basketball history (third this season) to record 1,000 points in a career.

As the Warriors continued to control the game, they headed into the locker room ahead 36-22 with a remarkable 14 team assists on 15-for-33 shooting from the field.

Beginning the second half, Corban pursued their largest lead of the game (46-26) for the first of three times at the 16:40 mark when Dionne dished a pass off to Carras, who easily finished a lay-up.

Warner Pacific's Nicole Brown attempted to single-handedly bring the Knights back into the game by scoring her team's next 15 points over a period of nearly five minutes.

Unfortunately, the host Warriors were able to keep the visiting squad at bay thanks to Steigleman attributed to Corban's on going persistence by knocking down her team's first three-pointer of the night with 10:27 left to play that put the Warriors up by 18 points, 61-43.

Corban progressed to take their third lead of 20 points (73-53) with 2:44 remaining until the game's final buzzer when Steigleman knocked down her first of two free throw shots.

The home team relaxed a bit in these final minutes, but did not give much up.

Despite the Knight's nicks into Corban's lead, the Warriors turned out victors for the tenth time in eleven games, 78-64.

Carras turned in a double-double performance with a team-high 19-points and game-high 11 rebounds were impressive, as she only participated in 26 minutes of the game.

Steigleman recorded 17 points respectively and Wilson added 16 points and led the team with 5 assists.

As a whole, Corban shot 30-for-63 (47.6%) from the field, though 1-for-9 (11.1%) from the three point line and uncharacteristically 17-for-27 (63.0%) from the free throw line.

Meanwhile, Warner Pacific shot 25-for-60 (41.7%) from the field, including 6-for-10 (60.0%) from the charity stripe.

The Knights were also 8-for-17 (47.1%) from behind the arc.

Warner Pacific was led by Brown's game-high 27 points on 12-for-22 shooting from field, while Jessica Mendezona added 17 points of her own.

Brown also dished out a game-high 6 assists for the visitors, while Mendezona was responsible for 11 rebounds that tied her for a game-high.

In defeating last season's Cascade Collegiate Conference regular season champions and winning its fifth straight conference game, Corban improves to 15-5 overall, 7-2 in CCC play.

On the other hand, Warner Pacific drops its sixth consecutive conference match up to fall to 7-12 overall, 3-6 in CCC action.

The Warriors will begin a list of four straight road games on Friday, January 19th, when they travel to current CCC front-runners Albertson College of Idaho for a rematch beginning at 5:30 PM (MST).

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