Battle of Wills: Women fall short against Lane

Linn-Benton’s Activity Center was the site of a hard-fought battle for second place in the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC) women’s standings on Wednesday Jan. 25.

Linn-Benton Roadrunners (4-2) played the Lane Titans (4-1) in a game that proved both these teams were deserving of a top seed. The score was 42-33 in favor of the Titans at halftime, where they outscored Linn Benton 25-14 in the 2nd quarter.  

Starting the 3rd quarter, the crowd was getting into the game. The Roadrunners were able to get back into the game by hitting three pointers from Jade Bevandich, who finished the game with 15 points.

“The team is coming along really well we keep improving every game,” said Bevandich.

They also got a healthy amount of point production from Freshman Kasey Anderson who had 15 points. They outscored the Titans 24-20 in the 3rd to trim the lead to five trailing 57-62.  Starting the 4th quarter, Lane extended the lead back up to nine with six minutes to go in the 4th. Linn-Benton would come back and tie it up at 71 by going on a 14-5 run with two minutes left in the game. Scoring wasn’t the only thing that kept the Roadrunners in the game. Their defense really helped fuel this run, with Jade Bevandich totaling 4 steals in the game.

“We need to be more aggressive on defense especially me,” said Bevandich.

The Titans came out of a timeout and proceeded to nail a clutch three pointer  to put the game at 74-71 with 1:30 left. After that three, Linn-Benton was held to only four points to finish the game with 75 points. Lane would hold the momentum after that basket and finished the game with an 81-75 victory.

“The game was tight the whole time we just fell short at the end,” said Kasey Anderson.  
The team traveled to Clark on Jan. 28 and picked up a win to put them at third place in the Southern region of the NWAC, behind Umpqua and Lane. Next home game is on Feb. 1, against Clackamas.

Story and photo by Joshua Knight