PORTLAND, Ore.—Juniors
Karli Mukai and
Charlotte Carroll combined for 45 points, but Lewis & Clark College women's basketball couldn't keep up with visiting Pacific Lutheran University in the second half of a 63-50 setback.
THE BASICS
Pacific Lutheran 63, Lewis & Clark 50
(Lewis & Clark 2-20, Northwest Conference 1-12)
(Pacific Lutheran 2-20, NWC 2-11)
HOW IT HAPPENED
The first half proved to be extremely competitive with the teams combining for nine lead changes, two ties and neither team leading by more than seven points. Pacific Lutheran opened the second half with a 29-28 advantage but used a 17-2 run to open the second half and never let the Pioneers get closer than 13.
Mukai and Charlotte were the offensive heroes for the Pioneers on the night. The duo scored all 28 of the Pioneers points in the first half and 40 of the team's first 42 points.
Mukai finished with a game-high 24 points. She went 7-12 from the field, 3-12 from deep and hit seven of her eight free throws. Mukai added three steals, one assist and one offensive rebound.
Carroll was a force in the paint for the Pioneers. She finished the game with 21 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out. The junior went 8-18 from the field, 5-9 from the charity stripe and seven of her 11 rebounds came on the offensive end.
Natalie Elstone tacked on three points and four rebounds,
Piper Curry tacked on two points and eight rebounds and
Gabby Beltran chipped in five steals and six rebounds.
Sydney Reisner led the visitors with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Taylor Schmidtke tacked on 18 points and Ashley Akamine just missed a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds.
The first half was extremely tight. After the game was tied at 2-2 and 5-5, Pacific Lutheran went on a 10-2 run to grab their largest lead of the half at 15-7. Lewis & Clark immediately responded with a Carroll jumper and a Mukai 3-pointer with three seconds left in the first quarter to cut the deficit to 15-12.
Lewis & Clark grabbed their largest lead of the game midway through the second stanza. With the Pioneers trailing 19-18, Carroll hit a jumper and then went 1-of-2 on free throws to give the hosts a 21-19 edge. Mukai drained a 3-pointer to make it 24-19 with 4:06 to go before halftime.
Pacific Lutheran would retake the lead with 1:33 to play in the half and used a Kasidy Javernick lay-in to go into the half leading 29-28.
The third quarter would be all PLU. The Lutes outscored Lewis & Clark 25-6 to build a 20-point edge and despite the Pioneers best efforts in the fourth quarter they couldn't make up the deficit.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Lewis & Clark forced Pacific Lutheran to turn the ball over 25 times. The 25 turnovers was the most forced turnovers by the Pios this season.
- Mukai posted her eighth 20-point game of the season. Her 15.1 points per game are third-most among all NWC players.
- Carroll notched her 10th double-double of the season. The junior is now averaging a double-double with 12.4 points and 10.0 rebounds per game. She ranks sixth in the NWC in points and second in rebounds per game.
- Beltran posted her third game of five steals this season. The senior has now racked up 23 steals in 11 games (2.09 per game).
WHO'S NEXT
The Pioneers will close out their second-to-last weekend of the season, when they travel to take on Linfield University at 4 p.m.
