Helen Higgs earns 350th career win and Whitworth women down Linfield

Jessica Thoens scored a career-high 25 points to lead visiting Whitworth to an 86-76 win at Linfield on Friday night in McMinnville, Oregon, giving Pirates head coach Helen Higgs her 350th career victory.

Higgs, who became the first coach in Northwest Conference history to reach 300 career victories, is now 350-234 in her 23rd season leading the Pirates.

Whitworth swept the season series from the Wildcats and improved to 9-11 overall and 5-6 in the Northwest Conference. The Wildcats dropped to 9-11, 3-8 as the Bucs earned their first NWC road win of the season.

Linfield went on an 8-0 run in the third quarter, going up 55-51 on a basket by Audrey McMillan and

increasing its lead to 66-59 with 8:40 to play in the game.

With just under six minutes to play the Pirates ran off an 11-0 spurt to take over the momentum. Grace Douglas scored to tie the game 71-71 and Madison Moffat followed with a three-pointer that gave the Bucs a lead they would never relinquish.

Thoens surpassed her previous career high of 18 points by making 8 of 11 shots from the field, including 3 of 3 from 3-point range. She went 6 of 8 at the line, including three freebies in the final 20 seconds. Douglas added 18 points and Moffat scored a dozen. Whitworth shot 48 percent from the field, including 6 of 12 beyond the arc.

Paige Graham scored 17 points off of the bench to lead the Wildcats. McMillan added 12 points and Riley Graham finished with 10.