Ranked Pirates Prove Too Much For Boxers in Spokane

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SPOKANE, Wash. – On a night that saw Pacific shoot nearly 50-percent from the field, the Boxers were unable to see off a ranked opponent as No. 21/19 Whitworth picked up a 66-58 victory inside the Whitworth Fieldhouse on Saturday evening.
 
Pacific started the game off hot as Sarah Curl (So., Beaverton, Ore.) hit a jumper on the receiving end of aKaila Johnson (Sr., McKinleyville, Calif.) assist less than a minute before a Nani Ostrom (Sr., Juneau, Alaska) jumper put Pacific ahead 4-0.
 
The Boxers' run continued with a Curl jumper and a layup from Olivia Cook (Sr., Beaverton, Ore.), giving Pacific an 8-0 lead with less than 17 minutes left in the opening half.
 
The Pirates' scoring drought ended with 16:30 on the clock as KC McConnell hit a jumper in the paint. McConnell's jumper sparked a run for Whitworth as the Pirates rattled off nine-straight points to take their first lead of the evening.
 
After a 10-10 tie at 12:02 in the first, a three-point play by Maia LaBoy (Fr., Honolulu, Hawaii) returned the lead to Pacific and set off an eight-point Pacific run as the Boxers' lead reached 18-10 with 8:46 left in the first half.
 
After seeing Lexie Zappone's 3-pointer with 3:57 left in the period pull the Pirates within five.Kelsey Misseldine (Sr., Phoenix, Ariz.) rolled four-straight points in for the Boxers to take a nine-point lead with less than three minutes remaining in the half. Zappone and Curl exchanged makes over the next minute, before a Jessica Thoens jumper with 52 seconds took the teams to the locker room with Pacific leading 29-22.
 
While Pacific opened the first period hot, it was Whitworth who started the second period on a roll as the Pirates opened the half with a layup by Katara Belton-Sharp and scored nine-straight to take a 31-29 lead with 16:31 on the clock.
 
The Boxers quickly tied the game at 31-31 on a layup from Ostrom, but Zappone responded from beyond the arc to give Whitworth a lead it would not relinquish the remainder of the night.
 
Whitworth's lead reached as many as 12 points by the 5:29 mark before Johnson, Curl, Cook and Siri all hit from the field to cut the deficit to four.
 
The final minute of regulation saw the Pirates score seven points from the free throw line, before a Siri 3-pointer with nine seconds wrapped up the evenings scoring as the Pirates snagged a 66-58 home victory.
 
Curl and Cook finished the night with 13 points each, while Siri picked-up 11 points off the bench. Curl led Pacific with seven rebounds and Ostrom added six to Pacific's 31 rebounds on the night.
 
The Boxers wrap-up their home schedule on Tuesday with a 6 p.m. scheduled tip against the No. 5/3 George Fox Bruins.