CHICAGO, Ill. -- The women's basketball team was in complete control of their 86-76 victory against Elmhurst on Saturday to grab their first conference win of the season. Jayla Johnson's 25 led the way as she continues to move up the all-time leaderboard, now sitting alone as NPU's 7th leading scorer.
The Vikings struggled to separate themselves from Elmhurst in the early going, but by the 1st quarter's end they established a 7-point lead. Elmhurst erased the deficit to 2 early in the 2nd quarter, though the Vikings quickly got their lead back to 7 by the quarter's halfway point. From then onwards, North Park's lead never dropped any lower. The Vikings' closed the 2nd quarter strong and went into halftime with a 14 point lead.
At half, Jayla Johnson and Chantel Hairston led NPU scorers with 12 and 10 points respectively, while Elmhurst's Katelyn Matthews sat atop her team with 8. The score was 43-29 in favor of the Vikings going into the 3rd.
North Park continued to dominate on both ends of the floor, putting up their best quarter of the game as they outscored Elmhurst by 9 in the 3rd. The Blue Jays' Taylor Harazin did what she could to keep Elmhurst in the game with 8 points and 2 blocks in the quarter, but it wasn't enough as the Vikings grew their lead to 23 by the start of the 4th.
With the win nearly secured, North Park took their foot off the gas in the 4th and opted to let their bench close the game. Elmhurst capitalized—putting up a monstrous 35 points in the quarter—but they only put a dent in the Vikings' lead. The game went final with a score of 86-76, marking the first conference win of the season for North Park.
Jayla Johnson's 25 led all scorers and her 8 rebounds were a team high. Emily Czuhajewski added 19 of her own on just 13 shots (3-7 from 3), and Lauren Lee and Chantel Hairston both finished with 10. Hairston's 4 steals tied Elmhurst's Marissa Urso for the game high. Taylor Harazin led Elmhurst with 18 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 blocks.
North Park moves to 7-2 on the season with a 1-1 record in conference play. The Vikings take a break next week before visiting Rock Island on December 19th to take on Augustana at 3:00 PM.
