BURNABY,BC --- On Saturday night, the Simon Fraser Women's Basketball team hosted Senior Night in the West Gym for their lone graduating player: Tayler Dryan. Matched up against the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks, SFU played out an overtime thriller, but eventually fell to the visitors by a final score of 99 to 91, closing out the home portion of the 2019/2020 schedule.
 
It was Northwest Nazarene who got the jump on Simon Fraser early on, as they started things off on a 13-5 run through aggressive team play in both the paint and behind the three point arc. Simon Fraser would settle in however, and at the end of the 1^st quarter, NNU was up just three at 19 to 16.
 
In the second quarter, Simon Fraser continued to fight hard to close the lead, but had trouble converting on their open looks. Meanwhile, NNU's balanced approached kept them ahead. After a five point run to end the quarter, the visitors took a 45 to 36 lead to the half. 
 
A successful third quarter for Simon Fraser saw them close the lead to as little as seven. In the final minute of the quarter, Jessica Jones hit a three point shot which was swiftly followed by a transition layup from Sophie Klassen as SFU began to feel some momentum. Northwest Nazarene would respond though, and they hit a desperation shot as time expired to take the lead to the final quarter at 64 to 55. 
 
Northwest Nazarene got off to a strong start in the final quarter, and after a 6-0 run, they found themselves up 15 points. Despite the adversity, Simon Fraser refused to go away and rallied with a run of their own, capitalizing on NNU turnovers to close the lead to just five points with three minutes remaining.
 
Simon Fraser did a good job putting the visitors in foul trouble down the stretch, and NNU's two leading scorers would foul out in the final moments of regulation. Still down three with just ten seconds left, Jessica Jones hit a deep three pointer which tied the game up at 79. Despite the tying basket, Northwest Nazarene was composed in clutch time, and Marina Valles hit a desperation floater with 1.7 seconds left to put NNU up by two once again. 
 
On the final possession of regulation, a picture perfect inbound pass from Kendal Sands found Ozioma Nwabuko just underneath the basket, as she put her attempt off the glass and in the basket to take things to overtime as time expired, with the score tied at 81.
 

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Pretty epic game on the hill tonight. Big comeback for @sfuwbb to send the game into OT. Didn't end up winning but daddy and daughter had a great time! Thanks @kendalsands for being a baller! Does your dad cheer like this all the time?! @sfuclan @thelegitsandman @suemac1414

A post shared by Farhan Lalji (@farhanlaljitsn) on Feb 15, 2020 at 10:42pm PST

In the overtime frame, Simon Fraser struggled to stay out of foul trouble as well as execute at the offensive end, going down five points early on. Although SFU was able to hit a number of threes down the stretch, including a three from Jessica Jones which pushed her over 1000 points in her career, SFU would ultimately fall at the end of overtime by a final score of 99 to 91.  
 
Leading the way for SFU was Jessica Jones, who recorded 32 points, and now sits at 1001 total points for her Simon Fraser career. Other standouts included Kendal Sands, who put up 14 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals, while senior Tayler Drynan had 13 points. In the team department, SFU was outworked on the glass, as they surrendered 47 rebounds to NNU, while securing just 37 of their own. 
 
Up next, SFU the University of Alaska Anchorage on the road February 20^th, game time is set for 8PM Pacific.