HONOLULU, Hawai'i – A late surge nearly capsized the home team's plans as the Concordia University Irvine women's basketball team put a scare into the host Hawai'i Pacific Sharks on Saturday night.
Trailing by 11 with under four minutes to play in the fourth quarter, CUI rattled off a 13-4 run to close the game.
HPU missed seven consecutive free throws which opened the door for the Golden Eagles to have a chance to tie and force overtime.
Izzy Navarro made a late three-pointer and also an unorthodox three-point play on a made free throw followed by a jumper off the ensuing missed freebie to rally CUI down the stretch.
Thanks to steals by
Hannah Vela and
Michaela Young, the Golden Eagles had a couple chances to tie the game in the final minute with three-point attempts.
However, the Sharks did just enough to eke out a 62-60 victory.
Concordia was led on offense by a talented trio. Navarro finished with a game-high 23 points, while
Erika Maggard supplied 19 points and eight rebounds. Meanwhile, Concordia freshman
Cadence Tarrant was fantastic for the second straight outing and nearly had her second career double-double with 10 points and a team-best nine boards.
Navarro has scored in double figures in 10 of her 12 appearances this season. The reigning PacWest Freshman of the Year was coming off her
career-high of 28 points in Thursday's close contest against Hawai'i Hilo. Saturday marked the fourth time this season she has scored at least 23 points or more as a sophomore.
Maggard led the way in the first half and dropped 12 of her 19 points in the first quarter. She has scored in double figures in nine of Concordia's 13 games.
Tarrant has impressed over the past month and moved into the starting lineup earlier this week. The first-year Golden Eagles tallied 11 points and a career-high 16 rebounds
against the Vulcans on Thursday.
Vela and
Sierra Clark also each knocked down a trey in the fourth quarter to help build momentum that would help spur the CUI comeback.
The Golden Eagles were playing without one of their top two scorers as senior
Camryn Kiernan had to sit out due to injury.
Both CUI basketball teams return home to play Vanguard this coming Thursday, Jan. 9 as part of a normal doubleheader at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. PT with the ladies playing first before the men.
After that, Westmont visits on Saturday, Jan. 11 for a 2 p.m. matinee.
CLICK HERE for the full CUI women's basketball schedule
