Zoe Tomlinson recorded her sixth-straight double-double after dishing out 29 points and 13 rebounds against the Falcons of Concordia (WI) to lead the Colorado College women's basketball team to a 76-64 win.
The Tigers improve to 4-0 at home and are the only team to go undefeated at the 2023 Colorado College Thanksgiving Classic.
Tomlinson's 29 points is a season-high for the New York native. She shot 76.9 percent from the floor and went 9-12 at the charity stripe. Tomlinson played 37 minutes, the most she's played all season. Her minutes were needed as the game was fast-paced and high-intensity through all 40 minutes.
The Falcons forced 15 turnovers despite committing 17 of their own. The Tigers built up their lead to 16 at one point, but CUW brought it back to within eight with four minutes to go. The lead only changed once, though, as CC was down 0-3 in the first quarter, but once, when they took a 4-3 lead, they never looked back.
"Coming off of four games in one week, I couldn't be any prouder of this group for finding a way to win tonight against a tough Concordia team," head coach
Katherine Auguste said. "Kayla [Mackel] and Zoë's offensive contributions were absolutely huge along with Audrey's big three's in the second half. Healy [Bledsoe] and Kyle [Rowland]'s play on the defensive end (as well as how they handled pressure throughout the game) was stabilizing and confidence-generating as well. "
CC shot 53.1 percent from the floor, including a 57.14 shooting percentage in the fourth quarter to close out the game.
Kayla Mackel recorded a career-high 22 points with three boards, six assists, two steals and a block. The Houston, Texas native's career-high coming into the season was 11 points. This year, she has had three games scoring over 15 points. Including this weekend, she's averaging 11.5 points on the season.
Mackel went 3-6 from three-point range. This season, she's averaging 41.7 percent from deep, the best on the team.
The Tigers led 34-22 at the half but were outscored in the second 42-20. The Falcons didn't go away quietly despite the consistent shooting by CC. The third quarter was the worst of the four shooting-wise for the Tigers; they made 43.75 percent of their shots but three of five of their attempted three-point shots.
In the fourth, the Falcons tried to get CC to the line. The Tigers made 11 of their 17 free throws, and then the defense held CUW to eight made shots in the quarter, despite four being three-pointers made by Ava Booth.
Healey Bledsoe led the defense with four steals to go with her eight points and four assists.
Audrey Bayston added six points and five boards. The starters accounted for 70 of the 76 points.
"We've all learned a lot in the last week and certainly intend to grow from these challenges and opportunities as we approach conference play," Auguste said. "It will be great to have a stretch of practices to hone our priorities before facing Whitman, Whitworth, and Lewis & Clark in our final non-conference road trip. We have strong forward momentum and fully intend to continue this path."
The Tigers will take the momentum from the two home wins and travel west to the Pacific Northwest. They will have three games in four days from Dec. 8-11, starting with Whitworth University on Friday, Dec. 8, in Walla Walla, WA.
