TACOMA, Wash. – The Puget Sound women's basketball team slid to a 54-45 win against Pacific University, on Saturday evening in Memorial Fieldhouse. The Loggers move to a tie in Northwest Conference play with the Pacific Boxers for 9-3, pushing past the Boxers 15-6 overall as the Boxers fall to 13-7.

Katie Minnehan led the defensive push with six offensive rebounds, totaling 10 rebounds and three steals adding six points and six assists, accompanied by freshman Autumn Hill who grabbed seven rebounds and an impressive four blocks in the win. Kennedy Brown shot for 60% adding a game-high 15 points, Paige Gerhart followed with 11 points, seven rebounds and five steals. 

Pacific opened the game with a three-pointer from the left side, the Loggers quickly took it back going for an 11-2 run led by Gerhart. The Loggers outshot the Boxes 13-8 in the first period. In the second period, the Loggers and Boxers were neck and neck, about halfway through the second period the Loggers faced more than four minutes of scoreless play followed by multiple turnovers which limited the Loggers scoring opportunities to none in the last minutes of the first half. Puget Sound still maintained the lead 23-18 utilizing 17 defensive rebounds to keep up with the pace.

Again, the Boxers took the opening jumper followed by another to tie up the game 23-23, the Loggers continued to pace the Boxers holding a scarce lead. At 6:24 the two teams saw another scoreless bout ended by a jumper from the Boxers Brilie Kovaloff. The Loggers dominated the next two minutes scoring eight consecutive points to take a 39-29 lead. The Loggers finally found their rhythm in the final period, scoring a three-point play from Brown, followed by the same play from Paige Oh. The Loggers continued to carry a strong lead, Oh scored from beyond the arc to take a 45-29 lead that they would maintain til the end. The Boxers attempted a comeback but couldn't reduce the deficit to more than nine points. 

The Loggers shot for 37% overall and the Boxers shot for 25.4%. 

The Loggers head to Oregon next weekend to face Lewis and Clark on Friday, Feb. 9 at 6 p.m. and Willamette on Saturday, Feb. 10 at 4 p.m. Willamette holds a 10-2 record in the NWC, while the Loggers are 9-3.