FOREST GROVE – The Whitworth women's basketball team had plenty of motivation to play well Saturday night, coming into Forest Grove still chasing a Northwest Conference playoff berth. The Pacific women weren't about to let the visitors from Spokane spoil a perfectly good homecoming.
 
The Boxers had their third straight strong shooting performance on the home floor, building a big early lead on the way to a 78-70 victory over the Pirates. The loss eliminated the Pirates from the postseason hunt, meaning the four NWC postseason qualifiers will be George Fox, Lewis & Clark, Whitman and Puget Sound in that order.
 
Pacific completed its longest NWC homestand with a 2-1 record and improved to 5-9 in conference play and 12-10 overall, ensuring no worse than a .500 finish to the season. Whitworth dipped to 6-8 and 10-13 overall, now two games behind fourth place Puget Sound and on the wrong side of tiebreaker criteria.
 
Pacific stormed to a 29-12 lead in the first half and led by as many as 19 in the second half before the Pirates made a late charge, closing to within 76-70 on a Lexi Belcher 3-pointer with 31 seconds left in the game. Annette Highley (So., Juneau, Alaska) nearly lost control of her dribble on the right sideline before being fouled with 24 seconds left. Highley sank the two free throws and Whitworth's final three shots stayed out of the basket as the Boxers celebrated their second consecutive home win over the Pirates.
 
Paige Jensen (Jr., Bemidji, Minn.) completed a monstrous weekend, leading the Boxers with 22 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and four steals one night after scoring a season-high 24 points in a loss to Whitman. Jensen was one rebound shy of a double-double at halftime as Whitworth cut a 17 point deficit down to nine before her free throw with 54 seconds left before the break.
 
Pacific opened the second half with three straight scores to bounce the lead right back to 17 points. Erica Schultz (Sr., Medford, Ore.) sold a ball fake on a 3-point shot attempt and dribbled into the lane, stopping to feed a beautiful bounce pass to Brittney Anderson (Sr., Missoula, Mont.) cutting along the baseline under the basket. Anderson came out the left side of the rim and hit the lay-in, drawing a foul on Jamie Lyons. Anderson hit the free throw to complete the 3-point play. Jensen followed with a layup, before Schultz stole the ball and fed to Anderson who led a fast break down the court, setting up Erica Colter (Jr., Kennewick, Wash.) with a perfect bounce pass to the wing for another layup to put the Boxers up 47-30 with 18:09 to play.
 
Jensen put the Boxers in front 55-36 with a steal and pull-up jumper in the lane with 13:40 to go in the game, giving them their largest lead of the contest. Pacific still led by 18 points with 3:26 to play when Schultz hit the second of back-to-back buckets to put them up 74-56. That would be the final Boxer field goal as Whitworth went on a tear, getting a pair of free throws from Guthrie before turning back-to-back Boxer turnovers into points, the second coming when freshman guard Kendra Knutsen poked the ball away from Colter at midcourt, then scored a layup while drawing a foul on the Boxer point guard, hitting the free throw after a time out at the 2:07 mark to make it 74-63.
 
Pacific hit some key free throws, with Jensen canning two at the 1:18 mark before Highley's important conversions with time winding down. The Boxers went 8 for 8 at the line in the final five minutes and 12 for 15 in the second half (80 percent) as time ran out on the Pirate comeback attempt.
 
One night after pouring in eight 3-pointers and a career-high 33 points in a 91-71 win at Linfield, Belcher scored a game-high 23 points with nine rebounds for Whitworth. Belcher hit four threes in seven attempts, but the Pirates, who came in shooting 33 percent from beyond the arc, finished 6 of 23 (26 percent) and 25 of 63 overall (40 percent).
 
The Boxers topped 45 percent shooting for the third consecutive game, hitting 28 of 60 from the field (47 percent) and 18 of 24 (75 percent) at the line. Erica Schultz broke out of a shooting slump with 17 points on 7 of 11 shooting, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range. Schultz had gone 0 for 5 from three and 10 for 41 overall over the Boxers past four games. Heather Hitch (Jr., Enumclaw, Wash.) added 15 points and matched a season-high with seven rebounds off the bench for Pacific. Brittney Anderson completed a solid weekend, returning to the starting lineup to go 4 for 5 from the floor with nine points and six rebounds.
 
The Boxers wrap up the season with a pair of games next weekend, starting Friday night at Pacific Lutheran. The season finale will be at the Stoller Center as the Boxers entertain Lewis & Clark on Saturday. Both games will tip off at 6 p.m. with live webcast coverage beginning at 5:45 p.m. on www.goboxers.com.