SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth Pirates ended their five-game skid with a 56-53 win over visiting Pacific Lutheran in a Northwest Conference women's basketball battle on Friday night.
The game was won at the free throw line as the Pirates (4-6) made 17 of 18 attempts to earn a tough win while the Lutes (3-7) hit three of nine attempts.
The first quarter started slow offensively for both teams with just nine combined points in the first five minutes of play. Ashlyn Peterson made a driving layup to give the Pirates a 9-4 lead with 4:12 remaining before the Lutes closed the quarter with a jumper to shrink the Pirate lead to two.
After Ashlyn Neilsen stretched the Whitworth lead to 14-9 with a three-pointer, PLU answered with a 10-4 run in the second quarter to grab a 19-18 lead. Peterson knocked down a shot from distance to quickly retake a two-point advantage heading into halftime. The Pirates shot 25.9% from the floor in the first half and 12 of their 21 points came from the bench. Peterson led with seven points and five rebounds.
Whitworth began the third quarter with a 7-3 run capped off by an Alex Goetz three-pointer. The Bucs pulled out to their largest lead of the game 40-33 after Peterson hit a pull-up jumper with 2:43 to go in the period. The Lutes responded with three baskets from beyond the arc to close the quarter on a 9-2 run and knot the score at 42 heading into the fourth quarter.
Pacific Lutheran grabbed a one-point lead two and a half minutes into the fourth quarter after a three-point play from Taylor Schmidtke. The Pirates retook a 47-45 lead with a Bri Talley three-pointer at the 7:13 mark. After five minutes of battling, Peterson knocked down two free throws to put Whitworth up 52-47 with 2:37 remaining.
The Lutes would not go away as Brook Samura hit a pull-up jump shot to get within one with just over a minute to play. After a key defensive stop, Julianna Jeross was sent to the free throw line and put the Pirates up by three after two made free throws. Whitworth held on as PLU's game-tying three-pointer just before the buzzer would not fall.
The Bucs' largest lead was just seven points but maintained a lead for over 34 minutes of game time. "I was really proud of our response when PLU battled back," Whitworth head coach Kenny Love said. "We went small for the first time all year and got really good rebounding contributions from Bri."
The Pirates finished the game making 16 of 55 field goals (29.1%) and knocked down seven of 24 three-point attempts (29.2%). Whitworth had a 47-41 advantage in rebounds but were outscored 32-16 in the paint.
Peterson led the Pirates with 12 points and four steals. Mya Bair grabbed a game high 11 rebounds to along with seven points and three blocks. Skylar Tuckwood scored seven points and Talley had six rebounds off the bench.
The Lutes shot 32.8% from the field and were led in scoring by Jaida Wood with 15. Schmidke had 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
The Whitworth women are back in action Saturday night when they host Puget Sound at 6:00pm.
