The Sea Lions advanced to Wednesday's title game of the 2009 Surf N Slam Classic after defeating Bridgewater State (MA) 75-53 Tuesday afternoon in Golden Gym. PLNU will take on Washington & Lee (VA) at 5:00 pm.
Colleen Planeta notched a double-double, scoring 21 points and pulling down 13 rebounds. The senior All-American also blocked five shots and had four steals in the win for PLNU (10-1). Senior All-American guard Liah Ector added 16 points and seven boards while junior guard Amanda Franz contributed 16 points to the Sea Lion cause.
Kaitlyn Trotter scored nine points in her second game of the year with high school teammates Brianna Colon and PJ Hanson each with five points.
Though PLNU prevailed by a large margin, the visiting Bears, a NCAA DIII institution, came to play. They made it tough on the NAIA No. 3-ranked squad, especially early on. The Sea Lion lead was only one point with just under six minutes to play in the opening half, but the green and gold would be up by 12 with 1:36 left and entered the break up by seven after a pair of Ector free throws.
Bridgewater closed a double-figure deficit to six in the opening minutes of the second stanza but PLNU grabbed all the momentum and started pulling away. The Sea Lions stretched their lead to 20 with 7:55 to go and a game-high 30 points at the 4:14 mark.
The large lead gave PLNU coach Bill Westphal a chance to play his reserves who performed well in the 22-point triumph.
The Sea Lions shot 45 percent in the non-conference tilt, limiting the Bears to 33 percent. PLNU out rebounded the visitors 46-37 and had a 7-2 advantage in blocks. Neither team did well at the arc, PLNU making just 1-12 and the Bears just 2-15.
Bridgewater (3-6) was paced by 13 points and six rebounds by Shelly DePina with Michaela Johnson adding 10 points.
The Bears will play Simpson on Wednesday at 3:00 pm. Simpson defeated Capital 81-53 earlier in the day.
