SPOKANE, Wash. – Visiting Puget Sound outscored Whitworth 44-23 over the second and third quarters to gain a 68-52 win over the Pirates in a Northwest Conference women's basketball game on Friday night at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.
The visiting Loggers improved to 13-3 overall and stayed only a game behind Linfield in the NWC standings at 6-1.
Whitworth (2-14, 1-6) looked like it might have a chance to upset Puget Sound and win a second straight game when the Bucs took a 15-9 lead after one quarter. It was a team effort as six different Pirates scored in the quarter and no one had more than three points.
Addyson Gallatin scored the first basket of the second quarter to give Whitworth a 17-9 lead over the Loggers. Puget Sound answered with a 15-0 run over the next five minutes to go up 24-17 on a pair of free throws from Savannah Pohl. The Bucs stopped the run and went into halftime down 30-24 and still in the game, but were outscored 21-9 in the period.
The Loggers pulled away in the third quarter, grabbing their first double digit lead (39-28) on a basket by Carmen Cruz and extending the margin to 46-31 on a jumper in the paint from Pohl. The lead remained at 15 (53-38) after three quarters. Puget Sound outscored the Pirates 23-14 in the third.
The Loggers eventually led by 23 points when Cayton Smith hit a three-pointer to make the score 68-45 with 2:46 to play. Whitworth scored the game's final seven points.
Ashlyn Peterson led the Pirates with 15 points. She was the only Whitworth player in double figures. Ashlyn Neilsen had nine points off the bench while Ali Bush came in for eight points. Ava DePew led with seven rebounds and four assists. Whitworth finished the game 17 of 55 (31%) from the floor, despite shooting well (9-19, 47%) from three-point range.
Natalia Sefair-Lopez scored 16 points for the Loggers. She was their only player in double figures, but 11 different Puget Sound players scored at least two points.
Whitworth will take on Pacific Lutheran on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 pm.
