Sports & Outdoors

Focus on defense paying off early for women’s basketball

The Puget Sound women’s basketball team picked up their fourth and fifth consecutive victories this past weekend, knocking off Willamette and Pacific, respectively.

Huge disparities between the Loggers’ scoring and their opponents’ thanks to stifling defensive efforts were the theme for the team in Tacoma on Friday and Saturday as the two conference wins came with ease for Puget Sound.

On Friday, the Loggers handed the Bearcats of Willamette a 68-45 loss after playing a spectacular game on both offense and defense.

Willamette shot just 25.9 percent from the floor and turned the ball over 24 times. In addition, Jocelyn Riordan (Lake Forest Park, Wash.) contributed 17 points while teammate Lindsay Layland (Homer, Alaska.) scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

Despite committing 21 turnovers, the Loggers still managed to hold their opponent to under 45 points for the fourth consecutive game thanks to stellar defensive play.

On Saturday, the Loggers produced an even more spectacular defensive performance, limiting the Pacific Boxers to 37 points in a 79-37 victory.

The Boxers became the fifth consecutive opponent the Loggers have held to under 45 points.

The outcome of the game was never in doubt as Puget Sound ran off to a 43-19 halftime lead. Riordan scored a game-high 20 points while Layland and Kelsey McKinnis each posted 14 points. Layland also racked up five rebounds on the game.

The Boxers shot just 19 percent from the field as opposed to the Loggers’ 49.6 percent.

The Loggers have built up some great momentum over the last five games.

After the opening weekend of Conference play the team was ranked first in the NWC in both scoring offense and scoring defense. They hold an average point differential of nearly 23 points per game through their first six games of the season.

The Loggers will look to their stingy defensive play to lead them to victory against Evergreen State on Wednesday at Memorial Fieldhouse.