PARKLAND – Tenth-ranked George Fox held Pacific Lutheran scoreless for an eight-minute stretch in the first half as the Bruins defeated the Lutes 70-43 in PLU's Northwest Conference women's basketball opener Friday night at Names Family Court.

Pacific Lutheran falls to 4-6 overall and 0-1 in the NWC, while George Fox improves to 11-0 overall and 2-0 in conference play with its 15th straight win against the Lutes. PLU returns to action Saturday night, hosting 2012-13 regular season NWC champion Lewis & Clark at 6 p.m.

The game looked like it would be a defensive battle early as the teams combined for only 14 points in the first 10 minutes of play. George Fox held a slim 8-6 advantage following a basket by Michaela Edgers with 11:45 to play in the first half, but the Bruins put 16 points on the board over the next eight minutes before Shelly Kilcup's jumper found the net with 3:28 remaining in the half. That ended the GFU run and got PLU back on the board, but by then the Bruins boasted a double-digit lead that they would not relinquish.

After scoring only six points in the first 16:32 of play, the Lutes scored eight in the final 3:28 of the first half. Unfortunately for PLU, George Fox scored nine points over that stretch to take a 33-14 lead into halftime.

George Fox limited PLU to a 20.8 shooting percentage (5-of-24) in the first half before PLU made 12 of its 26 second-half shots (46.2 percent) to finish the game at an even 34 percent. The Bruins connected on 51 percent of their shots in the game (26-of-51), including 11 of 19 from three-point range.

Samantha Potter led PLU with 12 points, seven rebounds and four steals, making five of her seven shot attempts in 29 minutes of court time. Shelly Kilcup added six points and six rebounds for the Lutes. Jami Roos scored a game-high 15 points for GFU, tallying all of her points with a 5-for-6 performance from beyond the three-point line. Megan Arnoldy added 10 in the Bruins' win.