Lutheran West came from behind last night and knocked off a much improved Oberlin team on the road thanks to a big second half. West started the game falling behind, playing tentative basketball on the way to a seven point deficit, but turned the game around with an intense third quarter. The team now has won two games in a row—both on the road—and moves to within one game of third place Fairview in the conference with exactly half of the PAC-12 season to play.

Clearly, the stats back up what Campbell said. The Longhorns managed only 19 points in the first half—they scored 18 in the third quarter alone and 34 in the entire second half. Oberlin, in contrast, was held to only 10 points in the third quarter compared to the 26 they put up in the first half. 

“We took better care of the ball in the second half as well,” continued Campbell. “And our traps were much more effective when we were aggressive.” Campbell’s team committed 25 turnovers, but caused 33 from the Phoenix—the majority of which were forced in the second half. West was hit with only 11 fouls compared to 20 for the Phoenix, and allowed Oberlin to shoot only nine free throws in the entire game. Oberlin did not help their own cause, making only three. West, however, went to the charity stripe 24 times, making 11.

Junior Lindsay Thomas led the team with 16 points. Junior Lindsey Tomola had nine. Junior Marissa Spelich had her best game of the year with seven points. Junior Ari Tomasula had a team high 12 rebounds for LW.