BIG RAPIDS, Mich. - - The Purdue Northwest Women's Basketball team finished their weekend on the road Saturday afternoon as they headed to Big Rapids to take on Ferris State. After being down by as many as 18 points in the second quarter and 14 points in the third quarter, the Pride made a ferocious comeback to take the lead in the last minute of regulation before falling in 77-70 in overtime.

"Not the outcome we wanted, but we grew today and got better," said Head Coach Courtney Locke. "I'm so proud of our fight to come back from being down 16 points at halftime. We showed who we are and what we are capable of in the second half."
 
The comeback truly began in the second quarter after a tough first 10 minutes for PNW (5-14, 4-7 GLIAC) against the stingy Bulldog defense. Molly DeValkenaere made a layup with 8:28 left in the quarter to make it 23-11, then another layup with 7:32 left, 25-13 Ferris State lead. Four Bulldog turnovers in the first three minutes of the quarter and steals from Tayler Vauters and Savaya Brockington helped set DeValkenaere up. PNW cut the deficit to just 11 points before a 7-0 Ferris State run in the last two minutes of the half, aided by a DeValkeneare layup with six seconds left, made it a 39-23 Bulldog halftime lead. The Pride shot 7-for-15 in the second quarter and 10-for-27 (37%) in the half. Brockington led PNW with nine points, two rebounds and four assists on 4-10 shooting. DeValkenaere scored eight points on 4-6 shooting before halftime as well.
   
Danielle Nennig began the third quarter with five quick points, making it a 39-28 Bulldog lead with 8:58 left in the quarter. After an answer by Ferris State, the Pride scored four points in six seconds, including a Brockington layup followed by a Galbraith steal on the Bulldog inbounds pass. A DeValkenaere layup with 2:03 remaining in the third made it a 45-40 game. Brockington then made a three-pointer off the assist from Galbraith with 43 seconds left in the third, 49-45 Ferris State lead. The third quarter ended with a 51-45 score after a Bulldog layup with 13 seconds left. The Pride outscored the Bulldogs 22-12 in the quarter, led by Brockington's eight points, Nennig's seven and Galbraith's five in the quarter.

Galbraith then converted on 1-of-2 free-throw attempts with 7:27 remaining in regulation, making the score was 51-48, Ferris State with the slim lead. Elexah Roepke got on the scoreboard for the second-straight game with a layup with 6:40 left, 55-50 Bulldog lead. Brockington then followed with a jumper inside the arc on the next Pride possession, 55-52.

The next three minutes saw both teams trading buckets until FSU's Adrienne Anderson connected on a big three-pointer with 3:13 left, giving the Bulldogs the 62-56 advantage. Brockington answered right back with a three of her own the next possession, 62-59. Nennig followed Brockington with a two-pointer to make it a 63-61 Bulldog lead with 2:24 left. The Pride got a massive defensive stop right after that, not allowing the Bulldogs to get a shot off that resulted in a shot clock violation with 1:50 left in regulation. Kennedy Jackson got fouled on the next possession, getting her to the charity stripe with 1:27 showing on the clock. She missed both attempts, but DeValkenaere fought for the rebound off the second miss and tied the game at 65 with a layup. After another big defensive stop by PNW, Brockington put the Pride in the lead for the first time since the first minute of the game with a layup with 38 ticks remaining. A Bulldog layup with 24 seconds left tied it at 65-65. A Jackson turnover off the PNW timeout led to a cross-court pass to Riley Blair of FSU, who missed a layup as time expired, giving the 950-plus in attendance at Jim Wink Arena a free five five minutes of basketball. The Pride outscored the Bulldogs 20-14 in the fourth quarter and was led by Brockington's nine points.

Ferris State scored the first seven points in overtime, all on their first three possessions. Galbraith hit a corner three with 2:51 left in the extra period to temporarily stop the bleeding for PNW. Blair got a layup as the FSU shot-clock expired with 2:18 remaining, making it an unreachable 74-68 lead. After an incredible battle, the final score was 77-70.

For the game, PNW shot 30-60 (50%) overall, including 6-15 from deep (40%). Ferris State shot 27-60 (45%) and 7-18 (38.9%) from deep. The Pride outscored the Bulldogs 22-2 in bench points, 9-7 in steals collected, 16-14 in assists recorded and 26-6 in points-off-turnovers, but got outrebounded 42-23, including 13-2 on the offensive glass. In the 45-minute game, PNW had fewer turnovers than FSU as well, 13 to 18. Other than the offensive rebounds, another difference in the game was the foul disparity. PNW committed 21 fouls on the afternoon as opposed to seven by FSU. The Bulldogs shot 16-24 from the FT line (66.7%), PNW 4-8 (50%).

Brockington topped her season and career-high in points with 26 on 11-21 shooting, including 4-6 from deep as she played in all 45 minutes. She also collected six assists, four rebounds and two steals. DeValkenaere scored a career-high 16 points on 8-13 shooting herself, while also recording a season-high seven rebounds, blocking two shots and getting two steals as she tied her season-high with 29 minutes. Nennig finished with 11 points, four rebounds, one assist and one block in her career-high 40 minutes of action. Galbraith scored all of her nine points after halftime while finishing with three assists, one rebound and two assists in 34 minutes.

Ferris State (14-5, 8-3 GLIAC) came in riding a six-game winning streak that put them in first place of the GLIAC North division. Blair averages 21.9 points in 35.3 minutes per game in conference play and has scored over 1,000 career points. She scored 16 points this afternoon, but the duo of Anderson and Mallory McCartney scored 46 points combined on 15-25 shooting. McCartney made five of her seven three-point attempts and recorded 11 rebounds, three assists and four steals, while Anderson shot 6-10 from the charity stripe. Chloe Idoni was also huge for the Bulldogs, scoring 11 points and blocking three Pride shots.
 
PNW Women's Basketball returns home on Thursday, January 30 when they host the no.4 nationally-ranked Grand Valley State Lakers. Tipoff in Hammond is scheduled for 5 p.m. (CT).

"We have to have next-play mentality, learn from this and get ready for next week," Locke said.