PORTLAND, Ore. – In a battle befitting regular-season co-champions, the George Fox University Bruins out-lasted the Lewis & Clark College Pioneers 76-68 in overtime to win the Northwest Conference Women's Basketball Tournament and their fifth straight post-season berth Saturday night here at the Pamplin Sports Complex.

With their 11th straight win, the Bruins improved to 22-5 on the season, earning the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament.  The Pioneers slipped to 21-6, and must now await the decision of the NCAA selection committee to see if an at-large bid to the tournament will be forthcoming.  The complete 64-team field will be announced some time Sunday afternoon, while the brackets and sites for the first and second-round regional games, which are set for Friday-Saturday, March 4-5, will be announced Monday at 12:00 noon Pacific time. 

The first half saw only one tie but nine lead changes, with neither team leading by more than five points.  After four early swaps, the Bruins went ahead 8-7 on a Keisha Gordon jumper with 13:46 left in the period and held the advantage for over seven minutes.  Three times in that stretch the Bruins held five-point leads, the last at 21-16 with 8:06 to go following a basket by Carrie Myers.

Two quick three-pointers by Margaret Dowling and Christina Herring around a Gordon jumper brought the Pios within one, and a basket by Kristina Williams gave the home team a 24-23 lead with 6:38 left.  Another Williams bucket gave the Pios a 37-34 lead at the half.

Herring hit a jumper to give the Pios a 39-34 lead to open the second half, the largest advantage the teams would have again until the overtime.  A free throw and a jumper by Hannah Munger and a bucket by Myers tied the game 3-39 for the Bruins with 15:29 left, and the teams jockeyed back and forth with no more than a three-point margin over the next 11-plus minutes.

A three by Arianna Mohsenian and a Myers goal as the shot clock expired gave George Fox a 57-53 lead with four minutes to go.  Dowling answered with a huge three, and Sara Villanueva banked in a jumper from the left wing for a 58-57 Pioneer lead with 2:41 remaining.

The Bruins regained the lead 60-58 on a Myers three from the left with 2:09 to go, and after a couple of scoreless exchanges, Herring hit a jumper in the lane with 58 seconds left to knot it 60-60.  Breezy Rinehart-Young missed a missed a go-ahead shot with 33 seconds left for the Bruins before Williams missed a potential game-winning 15-footer with two seconds left, sending the game into overtime. 

Munger's scoop shot gave George Fox the lead to open the overtime, but Villanueva drained a three for the Pios' only lead of the extra period.  A back-door layup by Rinehart-Young with 3:50 left drew an intentional foul, and she hit one free throw before Munger powered in a shot to give the Bruins a 67-63 lead.  Villanueva hit two free throws at 2:27 to make it 67-65, but the home team would not score again until the game was out of reach.  Munger's rebound basket, a three by Hayley Cusick as the shot clock ran down, and four free throws stretched the George Fox lead to 76-65 with 22 seconds left, off-setting a three by Herring with 14 seconds to play.

George Fox hit .571 (28-49) from the field but had some free throw woes for the second tournament game in a row, making only 16-28 (.571).  The Bruins held a 50-39 overall rebound advantage, but allowed the Pios 23 offensive boards, which enabled them to get 27 more shot attempts than the Bruins.  Lewis & Clark shot .316 (24-76) from the floor and .357 (10-28) from three-point range, while making 10-14 (.714) from the line.  The Bruins committed 24 turnovers to only 15 for the Pios.

Munger finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Bruins, her 12th double-double of the season and 23rd of her career, along with five blocked shots.  Rinehart-Young added 12 points, hitting 5-6 from the field.  Gordon, who left the game with 8:42 to go in the second period after tweaking her knee and did not return, added 11 points, while Cusick and Myers scored 10 each.  Cusick passed out four assists.  

Dowling had a double-double of 23 points and 13 rebounds to pace the Pios, who also got 18 points from Herring and 17 from Williams.  Herring had a game-high five assists.