Carras ties career-high in win over D-III Lewis & Clark

November 22, 2006

BOX SCORE - CORBAN 86, LEWIS & CLARK 68

Seniors Brianne Carras and Jessi Norton (#21) led the Warriors with a combined 43 points tonight, as Corban defeated Lewis & Clark to extend its winning streak to two games. (Photo courtesy of William Scott Photography)

PORTLAND, Ore. - Senior Brianne Carras (Olympia, Wash.) matched a career-high with 24 points on 10-for-14 shooting from the field, as Corban's women's basketball team defeated NCAA Division III member Lewis & Clark, 86-68, on Wednesday.

The 5-foot-11 forward scored a game-high in points, while pulling down a game-high 9 rebounds.  In the past twenty-four hours, Carras has scored 39 points on 16-for-25 shooting from the field, while grabbing 20 boards.

Aiding in the effort were fellow senior Jessi Norton (Redmond, Ore.) with 19 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the field, while senior Tosha Wilson (Madras, Ore.) and sophomore Jessica Steigleman (Eugene, Ore.) added 12 points each.

Corban came out with the hot hand, hitting seven of their first eight shots, jumping out to an 11-point (16-5) lead less than five minutes into the game, a deficit from which the host Pioneers never recovered.  Steigleman hit back-to-back jumpers to put the visiting Warriors up 18-7 before Corban began to extend its lead. Junior Mandy Peterson (Portland, Ore.) put the Warriors up by 25 (41-16) with 5:15 remaining in the opening half via a jumper. Lewis & Clark then used a 12-0 over a four-minute span to get within 13 (41-28), but could not get the deficit into single digits as Corban took a 14-point lead (44-30) into the locker room.

Coming out of the locker room, Corban quickly pushed its lead back over 20 points when Steigleman hit another jumper two-and-a-half minutes into the second half to give the Warriors a commanding lead, 52-32.  Corban grabbed its largest lead of the game (73-45) when Peterson nailed another jumper with 8:39 left in the contest.  The host Pioneers got as close as 17 (81-64) when Crystal Castle connected on a lay-up in the paint with 3:17 remaining, but each team battled over the final minutes with Corban securing its 4th victory of the season thanks to an 18-point win, 86-68.

As a team, the Warriors shot 36-for-67 (53.7%) from the field, including 7-for-17 (41.2%) from beyond the 3-point line. Meanwhile, Lewis & Clark shot 29-for-68 (42.6%) from the field and a mere 4-for-5 (80.0%) from the free throw line.

Lewis & Clark was led by Castle's team-high 19 points on 9-for-18 shooting from the field, while Katie Curtis registered 12 points off the bench and Shawna Castle added 10 points.

Corban held a 10-rebound advantage (41-31), as 9-out-of 11 Corban players had at least 1 rebound, while Chloe Hansen paced the host Pioneers with 7 rebounds.

Corban improves to 4-3 overall, while Lewis & Clark drops its first contest of the season to fall to 2-1. The Warriors are next in action on Friday, December 1st, when they travel south to Ashland to tip-off the Cascade Collegiate Conference schedule against Southern Oregon beginning at 5:30 p.m.