BELLEVUE, Neb. -- Caletria Curtis and Taylor Cormier combined for 27 points as the Bellevue University women's basketball team recorded a 66-56 victory over Presentation College in North Star Athletic Association (NSAA) action Friday night at the Gordon Lozier Athletic Center.
The Bruins improved to 8-6 on the season and 2-2 in the NSAA with the win. Presentation fell to 3-11 overall and 1-3 in league play.
Curtis narrowly missed a double-double, finishing with 14 points and nine rebounds. Cormier registered 13 points, four assists, two rebounds and a pair of steals. Beth Walker nearly recorded a double-double as well, scoring nine points and grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds.
Sydney Larson led the Saints with a game-high 16 points, while adding a pair of rebounds.
A 10-0 run highlighted by a pair of 3-pointers by Angeliece Tucker gave the Bruins a 21-7 advantage with less than a minute left in the first quarter. Six different BU players scored in the opening quarter and the Bruins shot 50 percent from the field to take a 14-point lead at 23-9 at the end of the first frame.
The Saints scored the first five points of the second quarter to cut the deficit to single digits. After Bellevue pushed the lead back to 14 points, PC scored the final seven points of the half as the Bruins took a 30-23 lead into the intermission. Bellevue cooled off in the second quarter, hitting just 2-of-12 shots from the field.
Walker led BU in the opening half with seven points and three rebounds. The Saints were paced by Macy Toelle's nine points in the first half. Toelle, however, was held scoreless in the second half.
Presentation got as close as four points in the third quarter before the Bruins used a 9-0 run to push the lead up to 13 points at 41-28 with 6:44 left in the third frame. The two teams traded baskets for the remainder of the third as BU took a 10-point lead at 48-38 going into the final quarter.
An 8-2 Bruin run capped by a layup from Curtis put the game out of reach midway through the fourth quarter as BU pulled away for a 17-point advantage before securing the 66-56 victory.
The Bruins held a sizeable 47-37 advantage in rebounds and held a 30-18 edge in points in the paint.
The Bruins will host Waldorf University on Saturday, Dec. 17 at 3 p.m. in an NSAA contest at the Gordon Lozier Athletic Center.
