SPOKANE, Wash.  Whitman's seventh-ranked Blues opened the 2017 Whitworth (University) Holiday Classic by Red Lion River Inn late Friday afternoon with a 59-55 non-conference women's basketball victory over the NAIA's Carroll (Mont.) College Saints.

The win -- its seventh straight -- lifted Whitman's record to 7-1 while the Saints drop to 5-3.

Carroll's only lead of the night came with the opening basket, only to have the Blues surge in front back-to-back layups from Makana Stone sandwiched around a pair of Saints turnovers.

Once again tied, at 8-8, Whitman broke in front with two Maegen Martin free throws then never trailed, though it also never completely shook off the Carroll challenges.

The game's four quarters alternated between quality chances and miscues.

Whitman hit six of 13 from the floor in the opening 10 minutes while Carroll was just three of 10, and the teams combined for nine turnovers.

Though the Blues never let the Saints bypass them on the scoreboard in the second quarter, Carroll knocked down 62 percent (8-for-13) of its shots to repeatedly close within a point or two. Whitman also turned up the heat hitting 64 percent (7-of-11) of its launches.

And the turnover bug subsided a bit, too, with only six in that second 10-minute frame.

Bailey Pasta's buzzer-beating 3-pointer had drawn the Saints to within 30-28 entering the halftime break but a pair of quick baskets at the start of the third quarter by Whitman -- layups by Stone and Emily Rommel – pushed the cushion to six, and then…nothing, as each team went stone cold.

Almost exactly five minutes elapsed between Rommel's layin and the next points, a Martin layin.

During that span the Blues and Saints amassed seven turnovers, three fouls, 13 missed shots and one blocked shot. It was another Martin layup, on the last of those seven turnovers, that finally cracked the lids that seemingly covered each rim. A Saints trey followed and the race to the finish finally gained traction.

Whitman led by four, 41-37, at the end of the third, then by as many as nine nearing the midway point of the fourth quarter before hanging on for the four-point victory.

Missed free throws hurt Whitman throughout as a 10-for-22 night at the stripe left points on the table, but Carroll chose to live and die with the long-range jumper only to be betrayed by a 6-for-20 night -- more than 40 percent of their total shots – from beyond the arc.

Fifteen points apiece from Martin and Stone, game highs, made up for the free-throw difficulties for the Blues, who also got nine points each from Casey Poe and Mady Burdett. Whitman piled up points from in close with layups and short jumpers, racking up 40 of its 59 points from within the paint.

The Blues continue their stay in the Holiday Classic with a 2 p.m. Saturday non-conference bout with Colorado College, which lost Friday's nightcap to host Whitworth, 65-50.