WALLA WALLA, Wash.  Despite a hard-charging late surge, Whitman's ninth-ranked women's basketball team fell short of completing a comeback from a 15-point deficit to visiting Willamette University, dropping a 62-55 decision to the Bearcats in Northwest Conference action Friday evening.

Playing in front their home crowd at the Sherwood Center the Blues (21-3, 13-2 NWC) caught fire over the final three minutes of the game, outscoring Willamette (15-9, 11-4) 11-3 down the stretch.

The problem was, after scoring the final bucket of the third quarter to creep within seven points Whitman went almost seven minutes without scoring to start the fourth. The drought allowed the Bearcats to steady shaky legs, and crawl out to a 59-44 advantage -- their largest lead of the contest -- with 3:27 to play.

Casey Poe's layup from the right side finally broke the seal that had covered the Blues' basket, and the frantic final minutes were then spent chipping into the shrinking deficit.

A steal by Poe on Willamette's ensuing possession turned into a 3-pointer from deep in the right corner by Mady Burdett, cutting into the deficit even further.

The Bearcats missed on their next shot, Whitman picked up the rebound, and Maegen Martin grabbed a feed from Poe and easily converted a layup to continue the rally.

Another Willamette miss eventually became free-throw attempts for Poe, who dropped in the second of the two to cut the deficit to seven, 59-52, with 43 seconds to play.

Fouling now to save the clock, Whitman put Kylie Towry on the line where she only hit the second of her attempts to keep the Blues' deficit manageable, 60-52, with 40 ticks left.

Burdett rang in again from beyond the arc, this time from the deep, left corner, and with 31 seconds on the clock, the Blues only trailed by five.

The expected foul that came next put the Bearcats' Brittanny Kochenderfer at the line, where the game's leading scorer converted both attempts, stopping Whitman's rally.

A 3-pointer with under 10 seconds left was off the mark, and with the final buzzer Whitman suffered only its third defeat of the season.

The night began unceremoniously for the Blues, who never led in the game.

Until late in the first half, Willamette was hitting at least 60 percent from the floor while the Blues were suffering through the half at around 28 percent.

Whitman consistently pushed the Willamette attack to under 10 seconds left on the shot clock, but it seemed that every late-in-the-clock heave was finding the netting. The Bearcats did earn a lot of those baskets, however, converting one-on-ones to drives toward the basket that were laid in to keep their shot percentage rising, eventually ending the night with 30 points from within the paint.

Whitman struggled mightily from the floor in the second and fourth quarters, in both frames hitting less than 24 percent.

The third quarter alone almost offset everything, though.

Whitman dropped in 64 percent (9-of-14) from the floor and ate into a 34-24 Willamatte halftime lead in that 10-minute span. Its 'heating up' was dampened, however, by the Bearcats' own 58-percent quarter.

Kochenderfer finished with a game-high 24 points for Willamette, while Poe and Burdett, with 15 and 14 points, respectively, paced the Blues.

The battle of the boards fell the Bearcats' way as they finished with a 35-25 edge, though Whitman did pull down 14 offensive rebounds, led by Makana Stone's five of her eight total for the night.

The irony of the night's result is that Whitman, which had entered the game tied for the conference lead in the regular-season standings, slips into second place with the loss -- a position that pits it against the third-place team in the league standings, Willamette, in Thursday's semifinal round of the postseason conference tournament.

But first comes the final game of the regular season, Saturday against visiting Linfield. Whitman seniors Sierra McGarity, Emily Rommel and Poe will be honored before the tip-off in a brief pre-game ceremony.