
Makana Stone tossed in 19 points Saturday as Whitman slipped past Linfield for a key league win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
The big three were on fire, and sometimes that’s all you need.
Getting 20 points from Mady Burdett, 19 from Coupeville’s Makana Stone, and a double-double from lone senior Maegan Martin, the Whitman College women’s basketball team rolled to a nice bounce-back win.
Knocking off visiting Linfield 72-63 Saturday on Senior Night, the Blues earned a split for the weekend and kept alive hopes of winning a Northwest Conference title.
With the victory, Whitman soars to 12-2 in league play, 18-5 overall, and stays a game back of George Fox (13-1, 20-3) with two regular-season games left on the schedule.
The Blues travel to Tacoma next weekend, where they will play Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran.
After that comes the four-team NWC tournament, and, most likely, a bid to the NCAA D-III national tournament.
Saturday, Whitman had to bounce right back after a tough four-point loss to George Fox, and the Blues didn’t disappoint.
Burdett and Stone came out firing in the first quarter, combining for 19 points as Whitman built a 26-18 lead.
Coupeville’s progeny hit a pair of buckets off of quick slashes to the hoop, packaged around a solid turnaround jumper, while Burdett went wild from behind the three-point arc.
Tossing in a trio of treys, she finished with 13 points across the first 10 minutes.
After that, the teams settled into a fairly taut game, with just a single point separating the two squads across the final three quarters.
But, while Linfield held even with Whitman in the second (11-11) and fourth (16-16) quarters, and trailed just 19-18 in the third, the Blues never surrendered the lead.
Stone, who wasn’t bothered by any pesky reffing blunders on this night, poured in points in every quarter.
A layup and a jumper that popped up, hit the glass and rattled back in, gave her 10 at the half, then the former Wolf added a pair of buckets in the third before closing with five fourth-quarter points to blunt a late Linfield rally.
Flying down court on the kind of run CHS fans saw every day, Stone pulled in a pass off a Martin steal, beating the crowd to the bucket to stake Whitman to a 61-56 lead with five minutes to play.
Right after that, Martin put together her own mini highlight reel, raining down a rare (for her) three-ball, followed by a bucket in the paint, stretching the margin back out to double digits.
Stone capped things with a final bucket, banging away down low, uprooting her defender, then whirling and banking home a short jumper.
She snatched five rebounds and dealt out an assist to go with her 19 points (on 9-12 shooting), while Martin celebrated her regular-season home swan song with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
On the season, Stone sits with 332 points, 186 rebounds, 39 assists, 25 steals and 18 blocks.
She’s shooting 141-269 from the floor and 49-64 at the free throw line.