Makana Stone was welcomed to Whitman with a gift of Walla Walla onions. She’s returned the favor by throwing down buckets. (Eileen Stone photo)
The supernova has returned.
After sitting out a game for concussion protocol, Makana Stone returned to the hard-court Friday, helping Whitman College to a 63-61 win over visiting Lewis and Clark.
The victory avenges an earlier loss to the Pioneers and lifts the Blues to 21-3 overall, 12-3 in Northwest Conference play.
Whitman is tied for second place headed into its regular season finale Saturday afternoon.
The Blues will welcome George Fox (20-4, 12-3), a team it beat 82-74 the first time around, for a game which will decide seeding for the league tourney.
Stone, a freshman from Coupeville, returned to the starting lineup Friday and threw down nine points while grabbing a team-high seven rebounds.
Five of her caroms came on the offensive glass.
Now 6-1 as a college starter, Stone had sat out Whitman’s win over Pacific Lutheran last Saturday after getting smacked hard in the face a night earlier in a tussle with Puget Sound.
She returned to that showdown after sitting out a quarter and still led the Blues in scoring and rebounding, but had some dizziness the next day and her coach took a precaution and sat her against a 1-21 team.
Everything was back to normal Friday, as Stone put in a strong 23 minutes of floor time for the Blues.
The game was a tight one, with Whitman up by five after one quarter, before Lewis & Clark knotted things at 30-30 headed into halftime.
A 19-17 edge in the third was the difference, as the two squads battled to a 14-14 stalemate in the fourth.
Three Blues hit double digit scoring, led by Chelsi Brewer with 14.
Casey Poe and Maegan Martin added 12 apiece, while Stone and Alysse Ketner both hit for nine.
The former Wolf spread out her offense across all four quarters, with her biggest bucket coming late in the game.
Grabbing an offensive rebound in a one-point game, Stone went right back up and drilled a jumper with 54 seconds left on the clock to stake Whitman to a 62-59 lead it would not relinquish.
It was one of three times she scored off of offensive boards in the game.
For the season, Stone has 144 points (6.3 a night) and 136 rebounds (5.9).
She’s second on the team in rebounding and field goal percentage (51.6% on 64 of 124), while also collecting 24 assists, nine blocks and 12 steals.
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