PORTLAND, Ore. -- It's not typical when one of the top teams in the nation fails to hit 18 consecutive field goals, but on Friday night at the Pamplin Sports Center, the Lewis & Clark Pioneers nearly capitalized on all of George Fox's misses before losing 59-44.

After the Bruins built a 43-16 halftime lead, No. 2 George Fox (12-0; 3-0 Northwest Conference) missed all 18 of its shots from the floor in the first 14 minutes of the second half, including the entire third quarter. Overall, the defending national runner-up shot 4 for 28 in the second half.

Lewis & Clark closed back to within 50-35 when Sara Hogman made a 3-pointer with just under seven minutes remaining in the game. Despite shooting 43 percent in the fourth quarter, the Pios made only 5 of 17 in the third quarter, limiting the rally in the period where George Fox shot 0 for 12.

"At halftime, our whole thing was no matter if they won, they [needed to have] deserved to win," said sophomore Miyah Leith, who led Lewis & Clark with 12 points. "We focused on the defense and moved the ball more on offense, and it gave us more confidence."

Leith scored seven of Lewis & Clark's nine points in the first quarter, as George Fox went ahead 19-9 after scoring the first seven points of the period. Aside from eight points from Kelley Koeppen, no one else scored more than six points for the Pios.

Koeppen shot 4 of 6 in the game, who along with Hogman were the only Pioneers players to shoot better than 50 percent. Koeppen also hauled in a game-best eight rebounds.

Kaitlin Mathewson and Hogman each had six points, with fellow starter Natalie Kelly finishing with five.

Freshman Alyx Crager (pictured right) made her collegiate debut, playing 22 minutes. She scored a 3-pointer with 0:35 remaining to finish 1 of 7 from the floor.

Justine Benner and Sammy Naluai scored 16 and 13 points, respectively, to lead the Bruins. It was the worst shooting performance of the season for Naluai (3 of 9) and Kaitlin Jamieson (3 of 8), who along with Benner are George Fox's leading scorers this year. Jamieson finished with eight points.

Despite the long stretch of misses, it wasn't the Bruins worst shooting percentage of the year as a team. In a 64-63 win at Claremont M-S last month, George Fox shot under 21 percent, and went 26 percent from the floor in a 72-57 win against Carthage.

Still, it was unusual.

"Especially from a very good team like that," said Leith, who didn't recall seeing an 0 for 18 stretch in her entire playing career.

Sade Elliott gave the Bruins a spark in the second quarter, hitting 3 of 4 3-point tries, as George Fox outscored Lewis & Clark 24-7.

Lewis & Clark (1-11; 0-3 NWC) looks to rebound on the road at Puget Sound on Saturday at 4 p.m. This season, five of their 11 losses have been by single digits.

"We need to realize that we can't come into a game scared and we can compete no matter what our record says with any of these terms," said Leith. "We need to come out no matter who is on the floor and play basketball."

The next Pioneers home game is on Jan. 23 against Willamette.

Other Northwest Conference Scores - Friday

Puget Sound 67, Willamette 64
Linfield 67, Pacific Lutheran 53
Whitworth 62, Pacific 45