TACOMA, Washington – Crucial road games await the No. 17/12 Puget Sound women's basketball in eastern Washington, where the Loggers tipoff at Whitman (Jan. 27) and Whitworth (Jan. 28).
 
Conference picture
Puget Sound enters this weekend with an 8-0 Northwest Conference record. The Loggers are 2.0 games ahead of the Blues, and 2.5 games ahead of Pacific in the NWC standings.
 
Creepin' up
The Loggers this week are ranked No. 17 in the nation by D3hoops.com, and No. 12 by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). Both marks represent a one-spot improvement from last week's polls.
 
Graceful
Grace Pytynia-Hillier is the conference's leading 3-point shooter, hitting 41.7-percent of her attempts from beyond the arc. Despite playing exclusively off the bench this season, Pytynia-Hillier is the Loggers' third-leading scorer with 9.9 points per game).  
 
Holy sheets
Katie Minnehan isn't scoring at an eye-popping rate, but she still fills the stat sheet on a regular basis. Minnehan leads the NWC in steals (4.2) and free-throw percentage (91.4-percent), ranks second in assists (3.8), and third in field-goal percentage (49.5-percent). She ranks fifth in the nation for steals.
 
Kennedy checking in
Kennedy Brown ranks fourth in the NWC in scoring by averaging 13.6 points per game.
 
A century in the making
The Loggers made history last week by hitting the 100-point mark (regulation) for the first time in Puget Sound's NCAA D-III history. The Loggers crushed Lewis & Clark, 101-56, in Memorial Fieldhouse (Jan. 20). A layup by Jenai Ancheta in Puget Sound's final possession put the Loggers into triple digits. Puget Sound has the nation's 12^th best scoring offense heading into this weekend (77.1 points per game).
 
Career-bests
Grace Pytynia-Hillier scored a career-high 21 points against the Pioneers, and Rebekah Desalla scored a career-high 17 points in the historic win.
 
Second time around
The Loggers beat both the Pirates (89-77) and the Blues (78-63) in Memorial Fieldhouse earlier this season (Dec. 2-3). At the time, Whitman was nationally-ranked No. 21/14, and the Loggers were unranked.
 
Scouting Whitman (11-5, 6-2 NWC)
Whitman's two conference losses this season are against Puget Sound and Pacific. The Blues enter this weekend with a five-game winning streak. Korin Baker ranks fifth in the conference for scoring (13.4), Elena McHargue is sixth (11.9), and Carly Martin ranks 10^th (11.3). The Blues average 65.8 points per game, which is second to the Loggers.
 
Scouting Whitworth (6-11, 3-5 NWC)
The Pirates are 2-6 in their last eight games - the two wins coming against George Fox (Jan. 14) and Linfield (Jan. 21) in recent weeks. Whitworth leads the NWC in rebounding (43.3), but it is last in 3-point percentage (25.9-percent), and second-to-last in scoring defense (63.3 points allowed per game). Olivia Mayer is the only NWC averaging double-digit rebounds (12.1), and she is the conference's leading scorer (18.0).