Junior Ashley Jones poured in a career-high 17 and senior Liana Tanaka (pictured) added 18 to lead the Pacific University women's basketball team to a 59-50 win over host Occidental on Thursday night in Los Angeles.
 
The Boxers (1-0) made a winner of first-year head coach Alecia Wilson in her Pacific debut and marks the second-consecutive year that the Boxers have knocked off the Tigers.
 
The Tigers (1-1) were led by the 13 and 12 point efforts of Taylor Yohshida and Alyssa Ramlochan, respectively.
 
Pacific freshman Megan Huynh hit a jumper in the paint, putting the Boxers ahead 47-45 with 5:24 left to play. The jumper sparked the Boxers, who scored 14 of the final 19 points in the contest.
 
The two teams were tied in the final quarter until a decisive 10-2 run by the visitors put Pacific ahead for the remainder of the contest. In the run, Jones hit a 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down to spark the run. Earlier in the game, Jones kept the Boxers in the game as she accounted for all five of the Boxers first quarter points.

After the five-point first quarter by Jones, she passed the scoring baton to Tanaka, who scored 10 of the Boxers' 19 second quarter points as Pacific went into the halftime break with a 24-20 halftime lead. The last time that Pacific had scored 24 points or fewer in the half and won was a 61-58 at Northwest Christian on November 20, 2015.
 
Occidental regained the lead in the third quarter, holding the Boxers to just six field goal attempts and outscoring the visitors by an 18-11 margin. The fourth quarter saw Pacific take back the momentum en route to the win. In the final quarter, Pacific shot 58.3% (7-for-12) from the field including a 75% (3-for-4) effort beyond-the-arc. Plus, the Boxers outrebounded the Tigers by a 12-6 margin and Jones scored 10 of her 17 in the final 10 minutes.
 
Next, Pacific will travel to face Whittier on Friday at 5 p.m. Earlier this week, the Poets opened the season with a 58-50 win over Linfield on Monday to begin the 2018-19 season.