College Place, Wash. - The Hawks of San Diego Christian College and the Walla Walla University Wolves closed out the second and final game of their weekend series here in College Place on Saturday night.
 
The Hawks (3-0) jumped out to a quick 12-4 lead in the opening minutes, shooting the ball very well while Walla Walla (0-4) struggled to formulate a rhythm on offense.  The solid two-way ability of Wolves' sophomore Titi Graham kept the Hawks from pulling away throughout the first quarter, as she played stout defense and scored four of the Wolves' nine points.  After a three from the Wolves' Aaliyah Anderson in the dying seconds, the first quarter came to a close with San Diego Christian holding a 12-9 lead.
 
With two minutes passed in the second quarter, the Hawks' Colleen Murphy was a perfect 4-4 from the field, helping San Diego Christian to a 20-11 lead.  Throughout the second quarter, as San Diego's lead grew, the Wolves struggled to penetrate the Hawks' zone defense.  With a little over a minute left in the first half, the Hawks opened up a ten-point lead after two free throws from Dayna Hansen made the score 26-16.  The Hawks would carry this ten-point lead until the halftime buzzer.
 
Junior forward Henriette Gahmig was on fire for the Hawks coming out of the halftime break, hitting a two and a three in back-to-back possessions to extend the lead to 17 at 33-16.  The Wolves showed exceptional resolve, however, hitting three treys in the midst of a 13-2 run, cutting the Hawks' lead to 9 at 38-29, and forcing San Diego Head Coach Sawn Chaffin to call a timeout with four minutes remaining in the third quarter.  The two teams traded baskets for the remainder of the quarter, as they headed into the fourth with San Diego Christian maintaining a 45-37 lead. 
 
The Wolves continued to chip away at the Hawks' lead in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter.  The lead dwindled down to just six at 45-39 after Morgan Stanyer found a crease to the hoop and laid it in.  With just two and a half minutes left in the game, the Hawks struggled to put the game away, as Carolina Montes and Aaliyah Anderson put the Wolves on their backs offensively.  At the two-minute mark, Anderson buried a three, and sent a jolt of energy into the crowd at Windemuth court as the Wolves cut the lead to just four at 52-48.  San Diego refused to fold however, as a triple from Henriette Gahmig iced the game, and gave the Hawks a 57-50 lead with 40 seconds remaining, forcing Wolves' Head Coach Paul Starkebaum to use his final timeout.  Walla Walla proceeded to play the fouling game with the Hawks, but it was to no avail.  San Diego Christian College took the victory by a score of 62-56.
 
Titi Graham was just two points shy of a double-double for the Wolves, finishing with 8 points and 10 rebounds.  Aaliyah Anderson enjoyed her best game of the season so far, racking up 24 points, 3 assists, and 4 rebounds.  As for the Hawks, Colleen Murphy was a force tonight, scoring 16 points to go along with 11 rebounds.  Henriette Gahmig also scored 16 points for the Hawks.

The Wolves are now looking ahead to a matchup against Salish Kootenai College on November 11 at 2:00p.m. here in College Place in front of their home crowd.

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