Box Score
By Ben Zimmerman

TACOMA -- Just once this season has the Whitman women's basketball team needed more than 40 minutes of regulation to beat a Northwest Conference opponent.

That was back on Jan. 11, when Pacific Lutheran pushed the Missionaries into overtime before becoming Whitman's 13th victim of the season.
The rematch on Friday? Another story.

Whitman methodically drained all drama from the game and all hope from its hosts in a 76-46, wire-to-wire rout, clocking its 20th win of the year.
This is the second 20-win season in program history. The first was last season.

The third-ranked Missionaries (20-0, 11-0 in Northwest Conference) took a double-digit lead just nine minutes into the contest and never relinquished it, enjoying second-half cushions as luxe as 35 points -- and coming within one allowed field goal of posting their stingiest conference defensive result of the year.

It was a Hobbesian victory: nasty, brutish and short.

"I thought we got off to a very good start," Whitman head coach Michelle Ferenz said. "Our starters came out and executed very well. We did a really nice job of cleaning up our offensive execution. No complaints."

Whitman surrendered a garbage-time layin with six seconds remaining. That bucket kept Friday's performance from eclipsing a Jan. 3 victory over Willamette in Salem, Ore. as the Missionaries' finest defensive effort, statistically, of the conference season.
Whitman allowed just 45 points in that win.

The Missionaries limited PLU to 33% field goal shooting (20 of 60) on Friday.

"We were clicking on all cylinders, defensively," Ferenz said.

Whitman's offensive display, meanwhile, was a tribute to its exceptional balance and depth, especially its finishing kick in the first half. As senior Sarah Anderegg watched from the bench with two personal fouls, Whitman ran out to a 37-18 halftime lead and checked into recess shooting a torrid 63% (17 of 27).

Not bad for a team missing its most crucial low-post scoring component.

Said Ferenz: "We showed some great patience on offense. We got the shots we wanted."

After playing just five minutes in the first half, Anderegg worked herself into the second-half flow and finished with 13 points (in 18 efficient minutes) on 6-of-9 shooting. She also had five rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots.

Anderegg was one of four Missionaries who scored in double figures. The headliner was junior point guard Heather Johns. In addition to knocking down 20 points on a sizzling 71% percent shooting clip (10 of 14), Johns had seven rebounds, two assists, two steals, two blocks and was generally too much for the Lutes (3-8, 7-13) to handle.

Meghan White added 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting with seven rebounds, and Chelsi Brewer led the bench brigade with 12 points and a pair of steals.

"That was key," Ferenz said of the balanced score sheet. "You want to play well on Friday and use a lot of kids and set yourself up for success on Saturday. It's February. These are all big games."

Another biggie looms on Saturday in Tacoma's north end, where the University of Puget Sound awaits Whitman at 5 p.m.

"This is a big weekend, a road weekend," Whitman head coach Michelle Ferenz said. "To play well on Friday hopefully bodes well for Saturday."