LA GRANDE, Ore. – The No. 17 Eastern Oregon University Women's Basketball Team defeated Northwest Christian University, 58-52, on Friday night at Quinn Coliseum. With the victory, the Mountaineers advance to the CCC Tournament Championship Game.
 
Madeline Laan led the Mountaineers (26-5) with 18 points, on 6-of-8 shooting. Airashay Rogers followed with 17 points to extend the Mountaineers' winning streak to 12 straight games.
 
Hannah Frederick led the Beacons (13-15) with 14 points and Melyssa Weber followed with 11 points for Northwest Christian.
 
The Beacons and Mountaineers' offenses struggled scoring to start the contest. Six minutes into the contest, the Beacons held a lead of 6-2, after a Chandler Gabrio jumper. EOU battled back and tied the game at 6-6 after an Airashay Rogers jumper.
 
Both teams continued to struggle shooting the ball in the half and a jumper by Madeline Laan gave EOU a 12-9 lead with 9:20 to go in the half. EOU slowly started to extend their lead and a Rogers layup put EOU ahead, 16-12.
 
Northwest Christian slowly started to battle back and scored the next five points, to take the lead, 17-16. The Mountaineers scored the last five points of the half and Eastern Oregon took a 21-17 lead into halftime. EOU shot 35 percent in the half, while the Beacons shot 28 percent.
 
The Mountaineers started to pull away from the Beacons to start the second half. EOU opened the half on an 8-2 run over the first four minutes of the half. During the run, Rogers scored four of the eight points.
 
The Mountaineers continued to extend their lead in the second half and play solid defense. EOU grew their lead to 14 points, 37-23, with 12:04 left in the game after a Morgan Freeman jumper. The Mountaineers grew their lead to 15 points, 40-25, after a Laan free throw.
 
The Beacons slowly started to answer with points of their own and went on an 11-3 run, trimming the Mountaineers' lead down to seven, 43-36, after an Allie Kelsey 3-pointer. Northwest Christian continued to trim the lead and after a pair of free throws by Demarea Caples, EOU led by six, 46-40.
 
EOU responded by taking the lead back to double digits, 54-44, after a Maloree Moss free throw. The Beacons made one last run at EOU and cut the Mountaineers lead down to four points, 55-51, with 10 seconds left in the game. EOU closed out the game by going 3-for-4 from the free throw line and claiming a 58-52 victory.
 
The Mountaineers return to action on Monday, March 2 when they host Oregon Tech in the CCC Tournament Championship game at 7 p.m.