TACOMA, Wash. – There was likelihood that Saturday's Northwest Conference women's basketball game between host University of Puget Sound and visiting Whitman College would become a preamble for the opening round of the postseason conference tournament. Results across the league made that so, and if that first-round game is anything like Saturday's 72-65 win by the host Loggers then basketball aficionados will have another barn-burner to enjoy.

Saturday's game might have come down to not getting a stop on just three, consecutive, possessions for Whitman (17-7, 10-6) as Puget Sound (18-7, 13-3) used the long ball on those three possessions that started the fourth quarter to rally from behind and fuel a 14-0 run.

The Missionaries' Kendra Winchester had pushed Whitman's lead to 53-48 at the tail end of the third quarter before an Alex Noren layup with three ticks left would allow UPS to trim its deficit to three.

The Loggers started with possession in the fourth and Elizabeth Prewitt nailed a 3-pointer to tie the game for the eighth time. A Whitman miss turned into another Prewitt trey and then a turnover transitioned into another 3-pointer to elevate Puget Sound's advantage to six. The Loggers would hit 3-of-6 free throws in the following minutes to close out a 14-0 run that was finally halted with a pair of Winchester free throws with 5:23 remaining.

Those Winchester tosses ignited Whitman as it turned the tables on UPS over the next minutes.

Winchester battled inside on the next possession and popped in a short jumper but Prewitt answered with a jumper of her own for the Loggers. The next time down the court Whitman's Casey Poe worked hard without the ball and picked up a nice assist from Hailey Ann Maeda for a clutch 3-pointer that drew the Missionaries to within four at 64-60.

A UPS turnover put the ball back in the Missionaries' hands with a chance to pull even closer as time wound toward the three-minute mark. Maeda missed a short jumper but battled for the rebound, and again found Poe away from the key for a mid-range jumper that trimmed the overly large deficit to just two.

Puget Sound's answer, though, was a timely bomb from beyond the arc by Samone Jackson. The fouling game was forced to come into play over the final two minutes and UPS put down five of its six attempts to escape the Whitties' comeback efforts.

Whitman's bench came up big in the regular season finale, chipping in 31 of the team's 65 points. Winchester and Chelsi Brewer, with 12 points apiece, tied Poe, who started, to lead the team in scoring. The Missionaries also won the battle on the glass, 35-30, with Maeda's seven rebounds tying three Loggers for game-best honors.

Whitman finished its schedule as the third-seeded team within the league standings and will again head to Tacoma Thursday when it will play No. 2 seed UPS at 7 p.m. in the opening round game of the conference postseason tournament. Top seed George Fox University hosts Whitworth University in the other semifinal match-up.