Box Score
WALLA WALLA – Just when it seemed the long road and long game the night before might be taking its toll on the Pacific women's basketball team, the Boxers put on their rally caps and forced Whitman to hit some high-pressure shots to earn a hard-fought win.
Jenele Peterson scored six of her team-high 14 points at the free throw line in the final 2:10 as the Missionaries held off a late Boxer comeback for a 65-58 Northwest Conference victory.
The Missionaries (4-2 Northwest Conference, 8-7 overall) needed those free throws as Pacific (2-4, 9-5) fought back from a 17-point second-half deficit to close within five with a little over a minute left before Peterson and Tiffani Traver combined to sink seven straight at the line to seal the win.
Erica Schultz (Sr., Medford, Ore.) led the Boxers in scoring for the fifth consecutive game, but saw her streak of 20-point games end at four after finishing with 19 points.
Paige Jensen (Jr., Bemidji, Minn.) added 13 points and recorded her fourth double-double of the season with 10 rebounds.
Pacific struggled through a tough shooting night against Whitman's tough 2-3 zone, connecting on just 8 of 31 from the field (.258) in the second half and 20 of 64 (.313) for the game. But after Traver scored to put Whitman up 51-34, the Boxers slowly chipped away at the lead.
Schultz and Jensen combined for 14 points during a 19-7 run, capped by a pair of Jensen free throws with 1:03 left to cut the lead to 58-53. With two one-and-one fouls left to give, the Boxers had more than a fighting chance, but Peterson, a 77 percent foul shooter on the season, stepped to the line twice and calmly sank all four free throws to bump the lead back to 62-53. After a Schultz basket, Traver went to the line and hit two more freebies to keep Pacific at bay.
Whitman, which came into the contest shooting an NWC best 74 percent at the line, shot 45 percent from the floor (22-49) and 17-24 at the line (.708). Pacific hit 13 of 19 free throws (.684), all in the second half, as Schultz and Jensen combined to go 9 of 11 at the charity stripe.
Kaila Johnson (Fr., McKinleyville, Calif..) made her first start of the season after a strong performance off the bench the night before at Whitworth. Johnson finished with three points and three rebounds and survived a scary collision that sidelined her late in the first half after cracking heads with a Whitman defender. Fellow rookie guard
Nani Ostrom (Fr., Juneau, Alaska) had eight points, four rebounds and two steals in a season-high 31 minutes.
Schultz had six rebounds, three steals and a pair of blocks, while Jensen dished out a team-high three assists.
The Boxers failed to capitalize on a 16-9 advantage in offensive rebounds, scoring just three second-chance points to eight for the Missionaries. Whitman's Meghan White had four blocks, all in the second half, to go with 10 points and six rebounds, while Jennifer Keyes connected on four 3-pointers in five attempts to finish with 12 points.
Keyes opened the second half with her fourth trey, putting Whitman up 38-27. The Missionaries maintained the double-digit lead until Jensen hit two free throws with three minutes left in the game to pull the Boxers within nine.
Pacific's had a 20-16 lead midway through the first half before Whitman scored six straight points to go up 22-20. An
Erica Colter (Jr., Kennewick, Wash.) 3-pointer gave the Boxers a 23-22 edge before the Missionaries closed the half on a 13-4 run to take a 35-27 lead into the break.
Winners of four straight NWC games and five in a row overall, the Missionaries will be tested with four straight road games, starting at Whitworth on Tuesday. After a 4-0 start on the road, the Boxers have now dropped two straight road games and three in a row overall. Pacific plays a third straight road game at Lewis & Clark Friday night before returning home to face Pacific Lutheran next Saturday. Both games tip off at 6:00 p.m. and will be webcast live on
www.goboxers.com with pregame airtime at 5:45 p.m.
