Justin Derby – Sports reporter.

The 2009-10 season ended on a sour note for the Linfield women’s basketball team. The Wildcats lost to Whitman College, 81-52, on Feb. 19, and to Whitworth University, 65-56, on Feb. 20.
The Wildcats ended the season with a 4-12 league mark and 6-19 overall. The overall record was a three-game improvement of the previous season’s record.
“I told the girls that last season was over and that their focus should be on improving every day,” head coach Casey Kushiyama said. “If they could focus on improving a little bit every day, we would see an incredible amount of improvement at the end of the season, and I think that’s what happened.”
Putting the ball in the hole was a problem that plagued the Wildcats in both games.
“It was a difficult weekend when it came to scoring,” sophomore forward Lindsey Gummersall said. “Unfortunately, we could not hit a lot of the shots that we normally do. This happens every once in a while, and we got unlucky with this occurring two nights in a row.”
Linfield began strong against Whitman, leading the Missionaries 14-11 with 13 minutes, 22 seconds to go in the first half. The Missionaries then went on an 18-0 run to go up 29-14 with 5:06 left in the first half. Whitman proceeded to take a 41-23 lead into halftime before coasting to its 81-52 win.
Sophomore guard Gretchen Owens led the Wildcats in scoring with 20 points.
“Whitman’s 18-0 run was a direct result of their defense,” Kushiyama said. “They did a great job of making us take tough shots and took us out of what we wanted to do. They also couldn’t miss from three — bad combination.”
The game against Whitworth was a competitive and defensive one. Linfield trailed 30-27 at halftime. Even though Owens had 15 points at the half, Whitworth’s many offensive rebounds kept it at an advantage.
Down 36-34 with 15:38 to go in the second half, the Wildcats went on a scoring drought that lasted eight minutes, leaving them down 49-38 with 7:42 remaining.
The Wildcats managed to get within three of the Pirates, but Whitworth went on a game-ending 14-8 run to win 65-56.
Owens finished with 24 points and eight rebounds, while senior forward Kelsey Forrest added 18 points for the Wildcats.
“We lack depth,” Kushiyama said. “Teams go on runs against us because we don’t have a deep bench to keep people fresh throughout the games. Combine that with Nadra [Evans] having to sit most of the first half because of foul trouble, and you get the picture of what happened.”
Despite the low number of wins, the season was a memorable one for the team.
“There are too many great memories to pick just one as my favorite,” Gummersall said. “We really got along well, and were able to have fun all of the time. It is rare to find a group of girls that gets along as well as we do, and I am really glad that I got to be a part of this team.”