NEWBERG, Ore. – For over 25 minutes, Lewis & Clark College women's basketball held the lead, including a 10-point advantage midway through the third quarter, but George Fox University took control of the game with a 12-4 run in the fourth and earned the 71-61 Northwest Conference win.
 
THE BASICS
 
George Fox 71, Lewis & Clark 61
(Lewis & Clark 3-15, 1-9 NWC)
(George Fox 3-14, 3-7 NWC)
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 
Seniors Karli Mukai and Charlotte Carroll scored 14 of the Pioneers' 19 opening points and finished with 13 and 12 points, respectively, to lead the team in double digits on Saturday evening. Mukai went 2-2 from behind the arc in the first quarter and finished the game with three total treys on the night. Carroll went 4-7 for eight points in the opening 10 minutes to help Lewis & Clark play to a 19-all tie after one quarter.
 
Freshmen Lauryn Frederickson and Kaela Guidry were third on the team in scoring, with nine points each. Frederickson finished with a game-high 10 rebounds, all on the defensive end. She was 3-4 from the floor and scored all of her points in the second half. Guidry was a perfect 4-4 from the floor and hit one of her two shots from the free throw line.
 
Lewis & Clark recorded 13 assists against George Fox, their most in a game this season. Seniors Natalie Elstone (5 points) and Jamison Richards (6 points) joined Mukai with three assists each. Frederickson and Carroll each had two for the Pioneers.
 
After ending the first quarter tied at 19, the two teams continued to exchange baskets in the second as the score was tied three times between the end of the first and halftime. After both teams committed shot clock violation turnovers late, Richards hit a trey a minute before the break to give the Pioneers a 29-26 halftime lead.
 
Mukai hit her final basket of the game to open the second half and give Lewis & Clark a 32-26 lead when Carroll found the guard outside the arc. At 7:19, Frederickson scored her first points of the game to extend the lead to 36-28. Freshman Madilyn Palosi (5 points) hit two free throws, giving the Pioneers their largest lead of the night with 5:36 left in the third quarter. After the Bruins hit only their second field goal of the quarter, freshman Zoë Anderson (2 points) hit her second free throw of the night to go up 39-30 coming out of the media timeout. George Fox cut the deficit to four, 46-42 by the end of the third.
 
The Bruins scored the first four points of the final quarter to tie the game for the first time since it was 26-all at 2:17 in the second quarter. The Pioneers went up by five points two more times in the game, the final time when Frederickson striped the Bruins and finished with a layup for a 55-50 advantage at 6:19. George Fox went on a 12-2 run over the next three-plus minutes to take a 62-57 lead with just under three minutes left in the game.  Guidry and Elstone would pull Lewis & Clark within three on layups twice, but the Pioneers would not be able to get any closer.    
 
BY THE NUMBERS 

• The Pioneers' 61 points are the most scored by the team in NWC play this season.
• Elstone recorded a career-high three blocks in the game.
• Lewis & Clark had their best field goal percentage (40.0%) and three-point percentage (41.2%) in conference play this year.

WHO'S NEXT
 
The Pioneers make the trip to eastern Washington for a Friday night meeting with Whitman at 6 p.m. in Walla Walla.