Whitworth women refocus in second half to defeat Pacific 66-58

The No. 19 Whitworth women’s basketball team overcame a halftime deficit on senior night and shot its way to a 66-58 win Saturday over Pacific at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.

Perhaps still stinging from their 53-52 overtime loss Friday to No. 3 George Fox, the Pirates came out cold and Pacific raced to an 8-0 lead before KC McConnell finally got a shot to fall.

Down 29-22 at halftime to the Boxers (9-14, 5-9 Northwest Conference), the Pirates went on a 14-2 run to start the second half to regain the lead for good.

“A little bit could have been last night, fatigue or senior night, or all of the above,” coach Helen Higgs said. “But we were great in the second half.”

The Pirates (20-3, 11-3 NWC) earned their 20th victory for the third consecutive season, the fifth time overall and fourth under Higgs, the program’s winningest coach.

The night started with honoring five academic seniors: Jessica Kramer, Katara Belton-Sharp, Kendra Knutsen, JoJo Nicolas and Lexie Zappone.

Belton-Sharp and Zappone had 16 points apiece and Belton-Sharp led the Pirates with nine rebounds. McConnell scored 15 and Kramer had eight points and four rebounds.

Knutsen hit some big free throws late and finished with six points and five assists.

“It’s nice to see them all have big moments in their final home game,” Higgs said. “Well, hopefully, we’ll have two more.”

Whitworth and Puget Sound are tied for second in the NWC with 11-3 records behind 14-0 leader George Fox. The top two have first-round home games in the conference tournament.

The Pirates shot only 28.6 percent from the floor in the first half but came out hot in the second half and ended the game shooting 23 of 57, 40.4 percent.

Sarah Curl and Olivia Cook both had 13 points for the Boxers, which got within four points with 3:23 to play. But the Pirates outscored the Boxers 14-10 to finish off the win.