Saturday night's Northwest Conference women's basketball game ended in a third consecutive conference win for Pacific Lutheran as it beat Willamette University by a score of 54-50 in Olson Auditorium.

Coming off of a 52-44 upset last night over Pacific University, Pacific Lutheran overcame an early deficit to beat the Bearcats. The Lutes are now 6-7 overall and 3-3 in the conference. After tonight's loss Willamette University is now 0-14 overall and 0-5 in conference.

PLU took an early lead in the first half with their first basket, a jumper by Katelyn Smith, coming only 20 seconds into the game. The Lutes took a 5-1 lead on a jumper by Chrissy Swope 2 1/2 minutes into the game.

Willamette broke from its slow start midway through the half and tied the game up at 5-5 on Jo Johnston's lay-up one minute later, and at 14:21 Willamette then took its first lead at 7-5 on a jumper by Katie Kalugin.

The Bearcats continued to add to their lead while the Lutes struggled to find their shot. When Mackenzie Lamson hit a layup with 4:25 left in the half the visitors led 20-12, and JoJo DeLong's three-pointer with 10 seconds left gave Willamette a 26-18 lead at the break.

The Lutes went on a 9-0 run early in the at the start of the second half, led by Katelyn Smith's seven-point streak. The offensive push gave the Lutes the lead (27-26) for the first time since early in the game.

Willamette regained a one-point lead on a basket by Lamson with 15:55 left, but that was the last time that it would be on top.

Impressive defense by Kara Sherman and solid offense, complete with of threes by Sherman and Abdo kept the Lutes ahead by six points, 41-35, with 11 minutes to play.

The Bearcats finally found their feet midway through the half, holding the Lutes scoreless for several minutes. While Willamette staged a comeback, PLU fended them off with baskets from Swope and Smith.

Inside the last minute Swope made a pair of free throws and Abdo hit three of four to keep the Bearcats at bay. Sherman added a free throw to seal the deal for the Lutes.

After her 29 total minutes in the game Smith came away with 19 points, the highest of the night for the Lutes. Samantha Potter had 12 rebounds and Swope had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Megan Abdo had 10 points and nine rebounds for PLU, which shot 30 percent (21-for-69) from the field and 33 percent (3-for-9) from the three-point line.

PLU out rebounded Willamette, 59-43, but also led in turnovers with 16 to Willamette's 13.