March 6, 2004

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Santa Clara, Calif. - Loyola Marymount women's basketball earned the right to advance to its second West Coast Conference tournament championship in four seasons, by eliminating Portland 59-54 in Saturday's semifinal at Santa Clara's Leavey Center. The Lions' defense held Portland to a 27.1 shooting percentage from the field to help LMU to its program-record 14th consecutive victory.

Senior Adrianne Slaughter started the Lions with a jumper less than one minute into the game after winning the opening tip for LMU. Junior Mary Turner then picked up a quick steal on Portland's inbound pass, and sank a jumper of her own, as the Lions took the 4-0 lead with less than one minute of play expired.

But both teams found trouble scoring over the next five minutes, as neither connected for a field goal until Portland's Ashlee Orndorff scored two at the 13:45 mark.

Today's game featured the WCC's two leading scorings in 2004 WCC Player of the Year Kate Murray and Portland's Khalila O'Rielly-Williams. While both were quiet early in the game, Murray scored her first two points to give the Lions the 10-5 lead with just under ten minutes remaining in the first.

Rachael Ziemann, who was hot in the 2003 WCC tournament, continued the trend on Saturday. Her lay-up with 7:15 left in the first half was her second field goal of the game. On the Lions' next possession, the sophomore found senior Jasmin Matthews under the basket to regain the lead for the Lions.

Raelen Self pushed the LMU lead to four when she hit the Lions' first three-pointer of the afternoon for the 17-13 advantage. Each team would score in the final minute of the first half, and the Lions left for the locker room with the 19-15 halftime lead.

Rachael Ziemann had one of her strongest first-half performances this season, scoring a team-high six points and pulling down five rebounds.

Portland scored first in the second half, but it was the Lions who took off on the game's first scoring run. Turner and Slaughter combined for six unanswered points, bringing LMU's shooting percentage over thirty percent for the first time in the game and extending the lead to nine points at 29-20. On the defensive end, the Lions left Portland to three-point shots on two straight possessions.

Slaughter, scoring six points in the first nine minutes of the second half, kept the Lions up until the seven-minute mark, when Hanna Seltzer's three-point shot put the Pilots up 40-39.

Portland moved the lead to three on free throws, but Murray connected for her first three-pointer of the game to keep it tied at 42. A three-pointer by Portland's Lauren Himmelspach and two free throws by Khalila O'Rielly-Williams gave the Pilots their first five-point lead of the game with just under four minutes left to play.

Rachael Ziemann hit a huge three-point shot with two minutes remaining in the game to bring the Lions within two, just before Slaughter hit a fade-away jumper to tie game at 47. Portland sank two more free throws, and Slaughter again answered on the offensive end, scoring two more for a 49-49 ball game.

The Pilots would have the final possession in regulation, but the Lions' stingy defense held Portland to an off-balance shot that did not fall. The teams entered the five-minute overtime period tied at 49. "That defensive stretch in the final two minutes of regulation was the key in getting into overtime and winning," Head Coach Julie Wilhoit said.

Slaughter scored the first points in overtime, hitting two free throws for the 51-49 lead. At the defensive end, she came up with another blocked shot to give possession back to the Lions. Scoring the Lions' eighth straight point, Slaughter connected for two with 1:49 remaining in overtime to give LMU the four-point lead, but Portland pulled back within two on a lay-up by Seltzer.

Defense would rule the final minute of overtime, until Murray's jumper with just over thirty seconds left to play put the Lions up 55-51. Orndorff kept the Pilots in the final seconds by hitting a three-point shot to move the score to 55-54. But the Lions hit four free throws in the final seconds and played solid defense down the stretch for the final 59-54 victory.

Slaughter led the Lions (23-5, 13-1 WCC) with a game-high 18 points and nine rebounds. Rachael Ziemann added a season-high 13 points and six rebounds. Murray secured her 18th consecutive double-digit game, scoring 11 points and pulling down nine rebounds. As a team, LMU out-rebounded Portland 51-39.

Orndorff, the WCC's 2003-04 Newcomer of the Year, led Portland (14-15, 8-6 WCC) with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

The program-record 14th straight victory is also a record 23 season wins for the Lions. LMU will look to win its first WCC tournament championship Sunday, after clinching the program's first regular season title February 21 with a win over Pepperdine. In tomorrow's championship match-up, the Lions will also seek the WCC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. "We know that there's only one guarenteed spot for WCC teams in the NCAA tournament," Slaughter said. "We want to make that spot a 'for-sure' for us any way we can."

LMU eliminated Portland from the WCC tournament for the second-straight season, as the Lions took last year's 61-47 match-up at San Diego's Jenny Craig Pavilion. LMU men's hoops also eliminated Portland from the WCC tournament Friday evening at the Leavey Center.

The Lions will await the winner of the other afternoon semifinal between No. 3-seed Pepperdine and No. 2 Gonzaga. Tomorrow's championship game will tip-off at 1:00 p.m.

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