PARKLAND – Pacific Lutheran saw its 18-point second-half lead dwindle to one with three minutes to play, but the Lutes held on to close out the 2014 Pacific Northwest Tournament with a 61-58 women's basketball victory over UC Santa Cruz Saturday evening at Names Family Court.
Pacific Lutheran improved to 3-3 overall with the win, while UC Santa Cruz fell to 5-3 with the loss. The Lutes finished the tournament with a 2-0 record, matching Puget Sound in the win column while both UC Santa Cruz and Colorado College finished 0-2 after UPS defeated the Tigers 94-45 earlier in the day.
Puget Sound's Amanda Forshay claimed Tournament MVP honors and led a six-member all-tournament team that included UPS teammate Emily Sheldon, UC Santa Cruz's Leah Parrish and Colorado College's Danielle Davis. Tayler Flemming and Megan Abdo both earned all-tournament honors for the Lutes.
One day after Abdo hit a buzzer-beater three-pointer to force overtime and Flemming scored a team-best 19 in PLU's win over Colorado College, the duo combined to score the Lutes' final five points of the day to clinch the victory on Saturday. Abdo's free throw with 21 seconds remaining made it a four-point game, and after Parrish hit a three-pointer to pull the Banana Slugs back within one, Flemming made two free throws to close out the win at 61-58.
Flemming finished with a team-best 14 points on only five shot attempts, as she made both of her three-point attempts and hit six of eight from the free throw line. She also added seven rebounds. Abdo scored 13 points and added three assists and two steals, while Jori Hall scored 12 points and Lacey Nicholson posted a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Parrish led all scorers with 19 points and added a game-high 13 rebounds and four steals for the Banana Slugs. PLU shot 42.9 percent in the win (18-of-42), while UC Santa Cruz made 33.3 percent of its shots (23-of-69), while the Lutes made up for the 27-shot discrepancy by making 22 of their 36 free throw attempts (compared to 6-of-16 for the Banana Slugs).
The Lutes came out strong and built a 15-point lead at 22-7 midway through the first half, and PLU maintained a double-digit advantage until just under the six-minute mark in the second period. A 17-2 UC Santa Cruz run covering six minutes late in the second period made it a one-point game following Tyler Stewart's three-pointer with 3:07 to play. Nicholson made a pair of free throws to push PLU back up three at 56-53, and Flemming and Abdo took care of the rest while Parrish scored the final five points of the day for UC Santa Cruz and missed a potential game-tying three in the closing seconds.
Pacific Lutheran returns to action next weekend, as the Lutes host Northwest on Friday at 7 p.m. and Evergreen on Saturday at 6 p.m.
