Women’s basketball ends season with two wins over Lutes, Bearcats

Kaelia Neal, sports editor

It was a bittersweet weekend as the women’s basketball team won its final games of the season while saying goodbye to four seniors, Annalise Beshears, Quincey Gibson, Riley Graham and Dani Krier.

“It was an emotional rollercoaster to say the least, having it be the last game we ever play with them and especially playing for the last time with my sister, Riley,” junior Paige Graham said.

“Being a senior is a very weird feeling,” Krier said. “I didn’t know what to expect on senior night, but it was everything I could have asked for and more. I can’t believe my time is up, but I can’t be more thankful to have played basketball at Linfield.”

Freshman Molly Danielson accomplished a double-double in Friday night’s win over Pacific Lutheran while Riley Graham led the Wildcats with 13 points for a victory over Willamette on Saturday.

After a long day traveling to Tacoma, Washington, the Wildcats stepped on the court ready to play. They led throughout the entire game and defeated the Lutes 79-57. Linfield had a field goal percentage of 48.3 percent and a free throw percentage of 82.4 percent.  

The Wildcats made their way back home to take on the Bearcats and defeated them 65-57. Linfield had a field goal percentage of 48.8 percent and went 19-25 at the free throw line.

The Linfield women’s basketball team finished 5-11 in the Northwest Conference with an overall record of 11-14.

“Although we didn’t win as many games as we would have liked we learned a lot and grew as a team,” Riley Graham said. “This team’s chemistry was like nothing I’ve ever been a part of.”

“The season overall was hard but also my favorite,” Paige Graham said.

“A large part of it we were trying to fix little things that were costing us games, and we did that toward the end of the season, which allowed us to play really well against the tougher teams in our league and get some wins as well,” she said.

Casey Bunn completed her second year as the head coach for Linfield women’s basketball, and she continues to lead the Wildcats to more success.

“The chemistry that our team had was the best out of my four years,” Krier said. “The wins and losses are not the most important things to me this season; I enjoyed every day spent with my team and coaches.”