BOX SCORE

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Lewis & Clark women's basketball team cruised to a 69-55 win on Friday night in the Pamplin Sports center against Pacific Lutheran in Northwest Conference action. The win splits the series with the Lutes winning earlier in the season. 

The win moves the Pioneers to 10-8 on the season and 5-4 in conference play. The Lutes slip to 7-11 overall and 3-6 in the NWC. With the second half of conference underway, the Pioneers sit in a two-way tie for fourth place with Puget Sound. 

Lewis & Clark earned 31 of its points from its bench, while scoring 21 points on second chances and turnovers. 

Senior Katie Anderson paced the Pios with a game-high 15 points, while freshman Ayisat Afolabi knocked down 13. Tayler Wang pulled down a team-high eight rebounds, while picking up seven assists and five steals to go with her six points.

Samantha Potter had the games only double-double scoring a team-high 12 points for PLU and collecting a game-high 12 rebounds. Katelyn Smith also scored 12 points for the Lutes.

The only time the Pioneers trailed in the contest was the opening 24 seconds, when Megan Abdo laid one in for the Lutes. Casey Zinn tied the game at 2-2 with 18:29 on the clock on a jumper assisted by Wang.

Back-to-back made free-throws from Daron Dean handed the Pios the lead, which they would never relinquish. Lewis & Clark's largest lead of the first half came on an Anderson free-throw with 4:46 until halftime.

Trailing 35-23 to start the second half, the Lutes managed to pull within four points in the opening five minutes of the period. The Pioneers put the pressure back on over the course of the half, taking their largest lead of the game with 6:21remaining. The lead came after two Zinn free-throws that the junior forward drained with ease.

The Lutes attempted to fight their way back into the game on several occasions but would never get closer than 12 points. 

The Pioneers face off with Puget Sound on Saturday, Feb. 1 at home with tip-off set for 6 p.m.