WALLA WALLA, Wash.  When Whitman has to execute, it can execute.

Against an uncharacteristically torrid-shooting Pacific team at Sherwood Center on Saturday, it had to.

Emily Rommel, Alysse Ketner and Maegen Martin each flirted with double-doubles, and the 16th-ranked Blues dominated the final 15 minutes to beat Pacific 75-58 and remain undefeated in the Northwest Conference.

"They were locked in," Whitman head coach Michelle Ferenz said of Pacific. "They were more locked in than we were, for a while. They were more engaged than we were."

Emphasis on "were." Trailing after one quarter and leading by just five after two, the Blues (13-0, 4-0 NWC) were methodical and efficient in the third. They began to tighten the vise by first pounding the ball inside to an energized Rommel, who scored the first five points of an 11-2 Whitman run. Chelsi Brewer and Casey Poe also had baskets in the sequence, which pushed the Blues' lead to 53-45.

The quarter ended with Whitman ahead 60-51. The Blues were 6 of 7 on 2-point field goals in the third.

"Emily started to bring it. Her energy was impressive," said Ferenz. In the third quarter, "we made shots. We were running things."

As has become typical of the 19th stingiest scoring defense in the country, Whitman's separation from the Boxers (3-10, 1-3) was underwritten by stops and takeaways. Pacific did not score a basket over the final 5:53 of the third quarter. It did not score, period, for the first 8:12 of the fourth.

Brewer had 15 points to pace the winners. Poe added 14 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals. Martin had 11 points, seven rebounds and two blocks off the bench. Ketner (seven assists) and Rommel (eight rebounds) had 10 points apiece.

Defensively, the Blues forced 22 turnovers and held Pacific to 7-for-25 field goal shooting after halftime.

Belying its 3-9 overall record and six-game losing streak it dragged into Sherwood, Pacific started the game on a tear. It made its first six 3-pointers (the Boxers entered the game shooting 29.6 percent from deep as a team) and led 23-22 after the first quarter. Pacific's 34 first-half points were three fewer than Whitman allowed all game on Friday against Linfield. All-NWC performer Sarah Curl had 13 points and Nikki Gilbert 11 points on 3-of-3 point shooting as the Boxers trailed just 39-34 at halftime.

Whitman, meanwhile, was getting the same rasher of picture-window looks at jumpshots it created against Linfield – and hitting. Brewer (13 first-half points) was 3 for 5 from deep, and Ketner, Mady Burdett and Poe each went 1 for 2.

Two Anissia Hughes free throws following a steal by Maegen Martin gave Whitman its largest lead of the first half, 39-31, with 27 seconds left in the second quarter.

The Blues host Pacific Lutheran University at 6 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 13.