FOREST GROVE – Puget Sound used a steady diet of long-range shooting and free throw accuracy to trump a better shooting performance by Pacific Friday night as the Boxers fell to the Loggers 63-49 in Northwest Conference women's basketball action at the Stoller Center.
Pacific (5-13, 1-8 NWC) outshot the Loggers from the field 37.3 percent to 33.3 percent, but Puget Sound (14-4, 7-2 NWC) excelled at the extremes. The Loggers connected on 6 of 19 from three-point range and drilled 13 of 19 from the charity stripe, including 10 of 16 in the second half. The Boxers managed just 3 of 14 from downtown and 8 of 14 from the stripe.
Erica Schultz (Jr., Medford, Ore.) was the only Pacific player in double figures, finishing with 18 points on 6 of 13 from the field. Kristen Corrales (So., Waimanalo, Hawaii) added six while Paige Jensen (So., Bemidji, Minn.) came up with a game-high 12 rebounds. The Boxers finished shooting 19 of 51 from the field, but turned the ball over 17 times.
Kelsey McKinnis paced Puget Sound with 21 points, connecting on 7 of 18 from the field. Jocelyn Riordan added 17 points. Sarah Stewart pulled down 11 rebounds as the Loggers won the battle of the boards 45-38.
After a close start to the contest, Puget Sound opened it up with a string of seven unanswered points to build a nine-point lead, 16-7, six minutes into the first half. Schultz responded by scoring five straight on her own to bring the Boxers within four, only to watch Stewart connect to start a 10-2 run that extended the Loggers' lead to 29-17 with 6:53 to go.
The Boxers came back with another post-fueled run, scoring eight straight off lay-ins by Schultz and Jensen and capped by a Sarah Smith (Jr., Kendrick, Idaho) lay-in that brought Pacific to within four again, 29-25, at the 3:46 mark. McKinnis and Lindsay Layland made sure the Loggers would not trail at the half, scoring nine of the last 11 points of the stanza for a 38-27 advantage.
Puget Sound extended their lead to 15 points early in the second half, doing so on a combination of lay-ins and free throws. The Boxers rallied to comeback with eight points, using a Schultz lay-in to make the score 46-38 at the 13:19 mark. The Boxers would then go the next seven minutes without a score, allowing the Loggers their largest lead of 18 points, 56-38, on a pair of McKinnis free throws with 8:11 left.
Pacific managed to put together a short rally, cutting the deficit to 13 on a Schultz trey with 6:08 left. The Boxers would come no closer, though, as the Loggers would rebound to their 18-point plateau a minute later and cruise the rest of the way.
Pacific continues a three-game home stand at the Stoller Center on Saturday as they host Pacific Lutheran. Tip-off is at 6 p.m. It is School Night With The Boxers, with local elementary school students admitted free of charge when presenting a flier that was distributed to schools in the Forest Grove School District earlier this week.