BURNABY, BC – Point guard
Ellen Kett equaled the Great Northwest Athletic Conference assist record and Simon Fraser University won its fifth game in a row after defeating Saint Martin's University 84-74 in women's basketball action on Thursday.
Simon Fraser, which has won eight of its last 10 games to improve to 12-8 overall and 10-5 in the GNAC, sits in fourth place in the conference standings. The Saints are now 5-17 overall and 3-12 in the conference.
Simon Fraser built a 15 point second quarter lead only to see it disappear after the Saints went on a 21-5 run over the final nine minutes of the second quarter, with the Clan failing to score over a six minute span.
Simon Fraser took the lead for good early in the second half but never pushed its lead to a comfortable margin. With the Clan leading by five points and the shot clock running down late in the game, Kett hit a three-pointer to give SFU a 71-63 lead.
Elisa Homer followed with another three on the Clan's next possession to go up 74-64 with 2:20 left and secure the win.
The Clan is now one win away from equaling its longest conference win streak. The team won six conference games in a row in 2012-13. Simon Fraser's longest win streak since joining NCAA in 2010 is eight games during the 2012-13 season.
Kett finished with 16 assists before fouling out with less than two minutes to go. She equaled the GNAC records for assist in a game and recorded the second highest single game assist total in Clan history. Kett was one assist shy of equaling the SFU record of 17 set by Andrea Schneider against Lewis-Clark State in 1991-92. Schneider also had 16 against Phillips University in the 1990-91 season.
Simon Fraser recorded 28 assist on 30 field goals.
Kett, who had 11 assists along with a double-double in the Clan's last outing, leads the nation in three-point shooting percentage (56.6) and is ranked fourth in assists per game (6.6). Her biggest basket was the three-pointer that came with 3:12 left in the game. She finished with five points and 16 assists.
Kett's teammate,
Rachel Fradgley, had a double-double with 25 points and 13 rebounds, both game highs. SFU out-rebounded the Saints 40-30
Elisa Homer finished with 20 points on 5-of-13 shooting. It was the first home game for Homer since scoring 40 points and setting a GNAC single-game record with 12 three-pointers in the Clan's 87-65 win a week ago at Northwest Nazarene.
Alisha Roberts had 13 points and
Sophie Swant recorded a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Clan.
SMU shot 45.5 percent for the game to SFU's 46.2 percent. The Clan recorded 20 points off of the 10 SMU turnovers.
SMU was led by Krista Stabler, who recorded 24 points, and Megan Wiedeman with 23 points.
Simon Fraser plays its next three games at home, beginning with Seattle Pacific on Saturday night at 7 PM in the West Gym.
Follow the SFU Clan women's basketball team on the club's official Twitter account at Twitter.com/SFUWomensbball.
--@SFUClan--