TACOMA, Wash.—The Puget Sound women's basketball ran into a tough Whitworth squad Friday night that was headlined by 31 points from Kayla Johnson. The Pirates' guard did the most damage to the Puget Sound cause, but the Loggers didn't help themselves after committing 23 turnovers throughout the game at Memorial Fieldhouse in Tacoma.

Puget Sound hopped out to an early lead as Katy Ainslie netted the game's first two buckets. The Pirates scored the next six points, but Amanda Forshay evened the game at six with a layup with 16:14 left. Over the next 1:13, both teams added two buckets each for another tie score at 10 apiece.

With the score even at 10, the visiting Pirates scored 13 of the next 18 points to go ahead by nine. A pair of free throws by both Forshay and Alexis Noren brought the Loggers within three with 8:44 left in the half, but three quick buckets by the Pirates took the scoring margin back out to nine.

Whitworth took its first double-digit lead of the night with just under five minutes remaining. The Logger defense held Whitworth to just one bucket from the 4:51 to 1:04 marks, but the offense could not capitalize and went tallied just two points during that stretch. At the end of the period the Pirates offense came alive, scoring three times in the final 1:04 to take a 42-28 lead heading into halftime.

The Loggers came out of the break reinvigorated, scoring seven of the period's first nine points and cutting their deficit to nine with 17:00 remaining in the half. After a Whitworth bucket gave the Pirates another 11-point advantage, the Loggers scored the next six points to come within five. Ainslie played a large part of those first five minutes of the second half, netting eight of Puget Sound's points.

Over the next three minutes, however, the Pirates re-established a double-digit lead, going up 57-47 at the 12:12 mark. The Loggers kept pace with Whitworth for a while, but they could not chip away at the lead and found themselves down by eight with 10:03 remaining.

At that point the guests embarked on a 12-2 run, taking an 18-point advantage with 6:37 remaining the second. The Loggers chipped away at the deficit, coming within 11 with 2:43 left in the contest. Whitworth briefly re-took a 16 point lead with 57 seconds remaining in the game, but the Loggers netted 3-pointers from both Hannah Lekson and Taylor Jones to end the game down 12 at 83-71.

"Whitworth played a great game tonight," said Puget Sound head coach Loree Payne. "Kayla Johnson was tough and we weren't able to contain her defensively. We needed to take care of the ball better and that didn't happen tonight."

Three Loggers scored in double-digits against Whtworth with Ainslie leading the way with 18, her second-highest point total in her career. Forshay added 15 points, while Ashley Agcaoili added 11. Lekson saw a career-high nine points in the loss as well. Ainslie also led the Loggers with eight rebounds, just two boards away from the second double-double of her career. For the Pirates, Johnson's 31 led the way but both KC McConnell and Kendra Lahue hit double-digits as well, adding 16 and 12, respectively.

The guests outshot Puget Sound 52.9% to 48.9%, but the Pirates also attempted 68 field goals while the Loggers managed 47 attempts. Puget Sound hit 6 of 11 3-pointers, but even those 3-balls could not overcome the 23 Puget Sound turnovers and 22 Whitworth points that came off them.

The Loggers (13-7, 6-5 NWC) face another stiff test again Saturday, Feb. 8 when they welcome unbeaten Whitman to Memorial Fieldhouse. That game starts at 4:00 p.m., two hours before Loggers' usual start time.  After the game, the Logger Club will hold a celebration for all of Puget Sound's former D-III student-athletes in Room 117 of Memorial Fieldhouse.