Bellevue College’s women’s basketball team extended their win streak to five games with victories against both Olympic and Everett on Jan. 25 and Jan. 29 respectively.
Bellevue started strong against Olympic, outscoring the opposition 20-13 in the first quarter. A 24-16 second quarter by Olympic put them up by one at halftime, but a second half resurgence by Bellevue gave them full control. The Bulldogs outscored Olympic 18-12 in the third quarter before capping the game on a 27-11 fourth quarter, with a final score of 81-60.
Forward Amanda Luckett headed the scoring effort with 17 points, adding 12 rebounds to her performance. Guard Mo Bungay trailed her in scoring with 14 points, while guards Makenna Faulkner and Kate Rutledge both scored 11 of their own. The bulldogs outperformed Olympic in every major category except steals, as well as shot a remarkable 50 percent from the field. Haley Simonson and Isis Crew put up 12 and 11 points for Olympic, but it was never really close.
Everett put up a substantially bigger fight, putting Bellevue into a four point deficit at halftime. It took a 10-point third quarter by guard Abby Clabby and a last second layup by Bungay to give the Bulldogs the push they needed in the second half to close out a 63-62 win.
Bungay and Luckett once again led the scoring with 13 points each. Faulkner scored 11 while Clabby’s ten points in the third quarter were her only points of the game. For the Trojans, MacieeDelaney led scoring from the bench with 20. Forward Alexa Martin scored 18 points and guard-forward Hannah Hezekiah came in third with 14. Delaney added ten rebounds to her performance to complete the double-double. While most stats were quite close, Bellevue managed a whopping 43 rebounds, with four players just coming shy of ten total rebounds in the game. Bellevue’s five blocks were also a difference-maker as they built on having the best blocks per game since conference play started a couple of weeks ago.
This was likely due to a lack of quality shooting from either side. Both teams came away with just 35 percent shooting while sporting a worse percentage from deep. Bellevue did make five more free throws, which was likely the difference in the game. This again is likely just another part of what makes Bellevue as good a team as they are, as they have held opponents to an average field goal percentage of 33 throughout the season.
Bellevue’s two victories push them to 5-1 in conference play, putting them tied at the top of the North Region with Whatcom. Playoffs are well within their sights, but they will want to keep fighting for the best seed they can get. Each game will hold importance as the North Region is substantially more competitive than the rest of the teams in the conference. Their game on Feb. 5 against the 4-2 Peninsula will likely be a difference-maker if nobody can run away in the standings.
