McMINNVILLE, Ore. – The Whitman College women’s basketball team is one win away from a conference championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament after grinding out a 69–56 victory over the University of Puget Sound in Friday’s Northwest Conference Tournament semifinal.
The Blues will face the winner of George Fox and tournament host Linfield in Saturday’s title game, with the conference’s automatic NCAA berth on the line.
Briana Andrade delivered a breakout performance, pouring in a game- and career‑high 23 points on 7-for-11 shooting while knocking down all eight of her free throws. She added eight rebounds and two steals, repeatedly punishing the Loggers in the lane and at the stripe as Whitman controlled the game from the opening tip.
Forward Emma Lena Baker gave Whitman a dominant one-two punch inside, finishing with 21 points—just one shy of her career high—and a game-high 11 rebounds for a double-double. Baker went 7-for-12 from the field and 7-for-9 at the line, scoring in every quarter and steadying the Blues whenever Puget Sound threatened to close the gap.
Whitman set the tone early, racing out to a 17–10 lead after the first quarter and stretching the advantage to 35–24 by halftime behind efficient 50-percent shooting in each of the first two periods. The Blues led wire-to-wire, never allowing Puget Sound to take the lead and matching every Logger run with timely inside buckets and trips to the free throw line.
The Blues maintained their cushion through a high-scoring third quarter, where both teams put up 20 points, and then closed the door in the fourth as their defense limited UPS to 23.1 percent shooting in the final frame.
Whitman finished the night shooting 44.7 percent from the floor and 79.3 percent at the line, out-rebounding the Loggers 37–35 and outscoring them 69–56 in the official box score attached to the game report.
With Andrade and Baker leading the way and the Blues’ core rotation hitting its stride, Whitman now turns its focus to Saturday’s championship, 40 minutes away from cutting down nets and punching their fourth NCAA Tournament ticket in five years.
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