NEWBERG, Ore. - Moving within one win of a share of their fourth straight Northwest Conference women's basketball title, the 5th-ranked George Fox University Bruins posted their highest point total of the season with an 84-42 victory over the Willamette University Bearcats Friday night here at the Cone Fieldhouse.

George Fox improved to 20-2 overall and 13-0 in the conference with its 16th straight win and remained two games ahead of the second-place University of Puget Sound with three games to play.  The Bruins can secure a share of the crown and home-court advantage for the entire NWC Tournament if they can defeat the Linfield College Wildcats Saturday in an 8:00 p.m. game in McMinnville, Ore.  Willamette dropped to 3-20 overall and 1-13 in the conference with its seventh straight setback.

A layup by Keisha Gordon and a three-pointer by B.B. Gardner in the game's first 32 seconds gave George Fox a quick 5-0 lead and they never trailed, although Willamette stayed close in the early going.  Threes by Alex Zennan and Erin Barclay forged 5-5 and 8-8 ties for the Bearcats before the Bruins took the lead for good on a Gardner free throw with 16:18 left in the half.

A Gardner layup gave the Bruins a 10-point lead of 22-12 with 10:33 left, and they upped that to 20 on an Arianna Mohsenian three-pointer with 6:33 remaining that made it 36-14.  George Fox held a 43-18 lead at the half after shooting .457 (16-35) from the field while holding Willamette to a .206 mark (7-34).  Gardner had 11 first-half points and Elise Kuenzi 10 to pace the Bruins.

Kuenzi hit a three-pointer and Hannah Munger a short jumper to give the Bruins a 30-point lead to open the second-half scoring, and the visitors cruised home from there.  The Bearcats got within 24 points three times but never seriously threatened again.  The Bruins' largest lead came with 2:35 remaining when Laura Silva drained a three to make it 81-38.  Katie Morse sank a three just before the final horn to give the Bruins some scoring from all 13 players who played and their most points in a game this season.

Gardner led the Bruins with 14 points, Kuenzi added 13, and Gordon just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.  The Bruins finished with a .446 shooting percentage (29-65), including .469 (15-32) on three-pointers, the second time this season they have hit 15 threes, which is one short of the team record of 16 vs. Lewis & Clark College in 2000 and Western Oregon University in 2005.  Munger added eight points, eight rebounds, and eight blocked shots, and Lindsay Keener handed out seven assists out of the Bruins' total of 24.

Keilyn Fujioka was the only Bearcat in double figures with 14 points, and Kaileigh Westermann grabbed 11 rebounds.  The Bearcats wound up with a .246 shooting mark (16-65).  Barclay passed out four assists, and Zennan made four steals.  

NOTES: The men play first and the women second in all conference games this week as the NWC experiments with a reversal of game times for doubleheaders ... The George Fox-Linfield men's game Saturday precedes the women's game at 6:00 p.m. ... Willamette goes on the road next Friday to play Pacific Lutheran University at 6:00 p.m., with the men's game to follow at 8:00 p.m.