TACOMA, Wash. – With a 56-51 victory over the home standing Pacific Lutheran Lutes, the Pacific women's basketball team opened Northwest Conference play with a victory as Nani Ostrom led the Boxers with a career-high 19 points.
 
The Boxers opened 2015 with an eight-point run with four points each from Sarah Curl (So., Portland, Ore.) and Ostrom (Sr., Juneau, Alaska) in the opening four minutes of the game.
 
Pacific Lutheran found itself on the scoreboard at the 15:53 mark in the opening half, but Pacific quickly pushed the score to 10-2 with a jumper from Curl at 15:34.
 
The Lutes began to climb back into the game, but a jumper from Kelsey Misseldine (Sr., Phoenix, Ariz.) and free throw makes from Abby Jones (Sr., Haines, Alaska) and Kyla Siri (Jr., Spring Creek, Nev.) pushed Pacific to a 10-point advantage with 9:30 left in the first half.
 
After seeing its lead cut to eight points with a little over five minutes remaining in the half, Pacific saw Ostrom hit 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions, which saw the scoreline reach 28-16.
 
The Boxers held a double-digit lead over the Lutes entering the final 30 seconds of the half, before a Taylor Talen free throw and Megan Abdo 3-pointer saw Pacific head to the locker room with a 30-23 halftime lead.
 
Pacific Lutheran returned from the halftime break with four-straight points, before a layup from Jones netted the Boxers their first points of the period.
 
The second half continued as the Lutes cut Pacific's lead to 34-33 with 15:15 remaining in regulation. An Ostrom jumper and Siri layup gave Pacific a five-point advantage as the two sides exchanged makes, until back-to-back threes from Pacific Lutheran were followed up by a jumper by Lacey Nicholson to give the Lutes their first lead of the evening.
 
The Lutes' 43-40 lead was short lived as Olivia Cook (Sr., Beaverton, Ore.) delivered an assist on an Ostrom 3-pointer, which tied the game at 43-43 with 5:59 remaining in the second half.
 
Ostrom's 3-point make was followed by makes from Curl, Cook, Jones and Ostrom from inside the 3-point arc to put Pacific ahead 53-43 with 3:04 remaining.
 
The Lutes began to erase the 10-point deficit with a five-point run, but Ostrom stopped the bleeding for the Boxers with a layup. Ostrom's layup was the Boxers final make from the field, as the final point of the game came from the free throw line as Cook secured Pacific's five-point victory before time expired.
 
Ostrom's career-high 19 points led all scorers and surpassed her 17-point outing against Caltech earlier in the season for her top performance as a Boxer. Curl notched 12 points, while grabbing six rebounds. Jones' 10 rebounds led Pacific on the boards, as she finished one-point shy of a double-double with a nine-point outing.
 
The Boxers are set for a 4 p.m. tip-off tomorrow at Linfield in Northwest Conference play.