PORTLAND, Ore. -- The lights turned on inside the Pamplin Sports Center gym approximately 15 minutes before Cal Lutheran and Lewis & Clark were supposed to play. The wait was worth it, however, as the game stayed within a single-digit margin almost entirely before the visiting Regals pulled away to beat Lewis & Clark 79-65 on Saturday evening.
The campus-wide power outage delayed the start of the men's basketball Bon Appetit NWC Tipoff Classic as well, pushing the scheduled 4 p.m. start for Linfield and Valley Forge back to 8 p.m. and the Lewis & Clark and Johnson & Wales men's game to 10 p.m.
Despite the delay, Lewis & Clark head coach Asha Jordan said her team was ready to go at the tip.
"It didn't affect us much us at all," said Jordan. "We talk about being comfortable in chaos. In practice, I show up everyday trying to figure out how to be their adversity because that will prepare us in games.
"Before the game, I told them that we've handled adversity, we know how to function in chaos and now is our time to shine, so we were ready to go."
Lewis & Clark (0-2) started ahead 20-16 through the first quarter with half of the points coming from Miyah Leith. At the 1:22 mark of the quarter, the Pios held a seven-point lead, their largest of the game before Cal Lutheran's Chelsea Jacoby scored the Regals' final six points. She led all scorers in the game with 23 points.
Taylor Messick scored the first four points of the second quarter to tie the game before free throws by Jacoby and Grace Derksen gave the Regals a 24-22 lead with about six minutes left until halftime. Cal Lutheran (1-1) only trailed twice more the rest of the game.
After falling behind by 16 points around the halfway point of the third quarter, Lewis & Clark came within 63-57 when Cianna Ochoco hit a 3-pointer with just under seven minutes remaining in the game before Cal Lutheran finished off the win.
In the loss, Leith once again led the Pioneers in scoring, dropping in 15 points on 5 of 9 shooting from the floor. Kaitlin Mathewson joined Leith in double figures among starters, while Deja Nicholas and Lauren Wood added 10 apiece off the bench. Mathewson also had a game-high eight rebounds.
From the rest of the starters, Natalie Kelly and Ochoco ended the game with five points apiece, while Kelley Koeppen had four rebounds.
Jordan says she's impressed with her starting five after the first two games.
"I expected it to take our starters a little big longer to become more cohesive, but we had great starts both days and I attribute that to the five that we started this weekend and their ability to come together," said Jordan.
In addition to the new line-up, the Pios have also made tweaks to their offensive system. Entering the season, Jordan expected ups-and-downs as a result.
"We did some great things offensively, which is nice to see considering we've changed the look of our team on the offensive end," said Jordan. "There are going to be some growing pains, which I think we definitely experienced at times this weekend, but I was really pleased with our effort."
Lewis & Clark plays next at Corban in the team's first road game of the season before returning home on Nov. 24 against Warner Pacific.
Other Northwest Conference Scores - Saturday
Portland 73, Willamette 54