FOREST GROVE – The Pacific women's basketball team was hoping for friendly confines after a tough stretch of games, including three straight on the road. What they found at the Stoller Center Saturday night was an offense that remained in confinement.

Pacific Lutheran (2-5 Northwest Conference, 5-11 overall) led wire-to-wire in a 62-48 victory that saw the Boxers drop their fifth consecutive game, while shooting a season-worst 28 percent from the field (17 for 60).

Sophomore post Samantha Potter scored 20 points and had 13 rebounds to lead the Lutes to their second conference victory of the season, ending a seven-game losing streak that saw them lose competitive games to NWC powers Lewis & Clark and Puget Sound.

Erica Schultz (Sr., Medford, Ore.) had her first double-double of the season, scoring 16 points with 13 rebounds to lead the Boxers. Paige Jensen (Jr., Bemidji, Minn.) finished a point away from a double-double with nine points and 10 boards. The Boxers leading scorers combined to go 8 for 28 from the field as the team remains mired in a shooting funk that began three games ago at Whitworth.

The Lutes raced to a 12-2 lead as Pacific missed 13 of its first 14 shots. The Boxers had a much-improved rebounding effort after giving up 26 offensive boards to Lewis & Clark the previous night, but even the second, third and fourth tries wanted to go anywhere but down the hole. Meanwhile, Pacific Lutheran hit at a 49 percent clip for the game (27 of 55), 13 points above their season shooting average.

Pacific had a 17-7 edge in offensive rebounding and a 13-5 eadvantage in second chance points and outrebounded the Lutes 43-38 overall.

A Schultz 3-pointer sparked a 9-2 run as the Boxers closed to within 14-11 with 11:41 to go in the half. From there, PLU ran off eight straight points to push the bulge back to double-digits. While Potter has gotten most of the attention for the Lutes of late, it was another sophomore post player that helped shove Pacific back down into the hole. Six-foot post Katelyn Smith hit five straight shots, scoring 10 of her 11 points in the first half to put the Lutes up 26-14 with 5:39 to go in the half. A circus shot reverse layup high off the window by freshman guard Andi Adams made it 28-14 Lutes before Adams buried a 3-pointer on the next possession to give the visitors their largest lead of the half, 31-15 with 3:56 left.

Pacific had another offensive surge before halftime as Jensen stole the ball and drove coast to coast for a layin that turned into a three-point play. After Erica Colter hit a three and Erica Schultz rebounded a missed Kaila Johnson free throw and hit the follow, Pacific had snipped PLU's lead back to seven before a Potter layup with three seconds left sent the Lutes to the locker room with a 31-24 lead.

Schultz canned a trey on Pacific's second possession of the second half, then answered a MacKenzie Bieker basket with a jump shot to bring the Boxers within 37-29 with 16:43 to go. The Lutes responded with a Potter basket inside followed by a Bieker offensive rebound putback to push the lead back 43-29.

Pacific would get within single digits one final time when Colter hit her second three of the night to pull the Boxers within 48-39 with 8:09 to play, but despite forcing back-to-back turnover from the Lutes, Pacific could get no closer before Potter scored again with 5:09 left, putting the Lutes ahead by double-digits to stay.

The Lutes head to Newberg Sunday night to take on George Fox in a game that was postponed Friday night due to hazardous road conditions in the Puget Sound region.

The Boxers have set season lows for shooting percentage in four straight games and will try to break out of the slump as they take on Linfield in McMinnville on Tuesday. The Boxers had one of their best shooting games of the year, hitting a team-record 14 threes in 26 attempts in an 87-54 victory over the Wildcats back on Nov. 29.  Tuesday's game tips off at 6 p.m. and will be webcast live starting at 5:45 p.m. on www.goboxers.com.