KIRKLAND – Pacific Lutheran led throughout the first half of play, but Northwest claimed the lead in the second half and pulled away to a 69-59 nonconference women's basketball victory over the Lutes Friday evening at NU Pavilion.

The loss drops PLU's season record to 2-4, while Northwest improves to 7-4. The Lutes return home to host Concordia Saturday night, with tipoff set for 6 p.m.

Samantha Potter led all scorers with 19 points, making seven of her 12 shot attempts, and grabbed six rebounds. Katelyn Smith added 14 points and a team-best nine rebounds, while Megan Abdo finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.

Domi Mendezona and Jordan Asher each scored 12 points to lead Northwest. Asher also finished the game with nine rebounds, six assists and four steals. Alyssa Dario scored 11 points. Northwest finished the game with a 41.3 shooting percentage (26-of-63), while PLU shot 32.8 percent (22-of-67).

Northwest jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the opening minutes before a jumper by Shelly Kilcup sparked a seven-point PLU run that gave the Lutes their first lead of the night. The Lutes' lead reached as many as six points before Northwest rallied to tie it up at 25-25 with 2:37 to go in the opening half. A jumper by Chrissy Swope in the final seconds of the period gave PLU a 29-27 halftime advantage.

Potter made a pair of layups early in the second half to give the Lutes a four-point lead, but Northwest scored 10 of the next 12 points to turn the four-point deficit into a four-point advantage following a three-pointer by Sanda Milovic. Northwest tried to pull away in the next few minutes, but the Lutes pulled within two points at 45-43 on a layup by Potter with 9:40 to play.

Northwest used another run to stretch its lead to nine points with just under seven minutes remaining. Pacific Lutheran worked its way back to within five, but the Eagles held off the Lutes down the stretch to pull away to the 10-point victory.