TACOMA, Wash. - Christiane Carlisle again led the Blues this time with 15 points,
Korin Baker added 11 points and eight rebounds and the Whitman College women's basketball team capped the regular season with a dominant 73-47 win at Pacific Lutheran on Saturday night at Olsen Auditorium.
The win locked the Blues (20-5, 12-4 NWC) into the No. 3 seed in next weekend's Northwest Conference Tournament and a semifinal matchup against Pacific.
Lindsay Drango chipped in nine points and nine rebounds for the Blues who shot a scorching 57% in three pointers. Carlisle hit four from downtown with Natalie Lundberg and Carly Martin both hitting a trio of three pointers.
Ava Edmonds led the Lutes with a game-high 17 points, and Kasidy Javernick added nine points, three rebounds and three steals.
Whitman was dominant from the get go. Carlisle wasted no time, nailing three pointers on her team's first two possessions to help the Blues to an 8-0 start. Javernick finally got the Lutes on the board, but Lundberg and Martin drained back-to-back three pointers to put Whitman up 14-2 with 4:46 to play in the first quarter.
The Lutes finally got their offense in gear and closed the period on a 7-0 run, then cut the lead to four points on an Edmonds three pointer early in the second quarter. The Blues responded with an 11-0 run bookended by three pointers from Lundberg and Martin to up the lead to 27-12 with 5:59 to play until halftime. The lead swelled to as many as 17 points before Whitman took a 10-point lead into the break.
The Lutes again had a good start to a period and shaved the deficit to six points early in the third quarter. But once again Whitman had an answer as jumpers from Baker and Brianna Andrade pushed the lead back up to 14 points with under five minutes to go in the quarter.
Whitman led by double digits the rest of the way and put the game to bed after Carlisle's three pointer with 5:23 to play in the fourth quarter put the Blues up 65-45.
Whitman opens the Northwest Conference Tournament next Friday, Feb. 23 against Pacific. The full tournament schedule will be announced this week.
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