BOX SCORE
CALDWELL, Idaho—After trading buckets in the opening minutes, the College of Idaho proved too much as Concordia fell to the No. 1-seeded Coyotes 68-50 in the quarterfinals of the Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament held at the J.A. Albertson Activities Center on Tuesday.
With the win, the Yotes improved to 19-7 on the season and will host the semifinals of the conference tournament on Friday, February 26. Concordia concludes the year with a 13-16 overall record after earning the No. 8 seed in the CCC tournament.
A three pointer by CU’s Rachel Scarpelli gave the underdogs an 8-5 early lead, but the Yotes would reel off eight straight points which included back-to-back baskets by Katie Strunk to grab a 15-8 lead with 15:30 left in the first.
The Cavs managed to cut the deficit to a single point on a trio of occasions in the remainder of the first, the final two situations resulting due to Sarah Eischen jumpers.
Eischen, who scored 10 points off the bench, connected on a mid-range shot at the 9:45 mark in the first to make it a 21-20 contest, but the visiting Cavaliers would register just four more points the rest of the half as the Yotes opened up a 39-24 lead at the break.
College of Idaho would extend the lead to 19 points, its largest of the game, early in the second with a Brette Rubie fast break layup after a steal from teammate Kayla Rubie and an assist from Nicole Bruce.
Later in the half, CU put together a mini run to slice the debt to 10 points with the score 50-40 with the clock showing 12 minutes left in regulation, but 29 turnovers, the second most committed by the Cavaliers next to the season-high of 36 charged to them in a January meeting against the Yotes, doomed the team’s chances to move closer in the scoring column.
The Cavaliers were led by Danielle Clauson, who scored 16 points on a 7-of-11 shooting night. Rachel Scarpelli grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and two assists.
Four of C of I’s five starters reached double figures with Nicole Gall posting a team-best 12 points and Strunk, Rubue and Nicole Brice each ended with 10-point totals. Gall added a game-high seven assists and six steals.
The Cavaliers outshot the Yotes in the second half, .417 percent to .345 percent but overall were outshot .415 to .392 in the game and out rebounded 39-32.