WALLA WALLA, Wash. - The short-staffed Pacific Lutheran University women's basketball team had seventh-ranked Whitman College against the ropes on Friday night inside the Sherwood Center in a wild affair that featured 13 lead changes and nine ties. In the end, the Blues proved to be too much for the Lutes to handle, pulling away in the second half to secure the 86-59 Northwest Conference victory.

The visiting Lutes dictated the pace in the opening quarter, utilizing an 11-3 run over a three minute stretch to build a six-point cushion at 23-17 with 36 ticks left in the first stanza. PLU's advantage was five points with 1:42 remaining in the second courtesy of a Stacie Spahr layup but that buffer quickly disappeared in the waning moments of the half with a three just before the buzzer bringing the Blues level at 41-41 after 20 minutes of action.

A Josie Napoli bucket just over 30 seconds into the third put the Lutes back on top but it would be Pacific Lutheran's last lead of the night, as the short-staffed Lutes ran out of gas as Whitman quickly built and maintained a double-digit cushion the rest of the way.

"Our players really competed and showed what they were capable of in the first half," said Head Coach GC Hillburn.

"With how hard we played in the first half we set a very high standard for ourselves. Unfortunately, we didn't have quite enough gas to maintain that level in the second half. We continue to get better and we're going to stay focused on that."

Napoli finished in double figures for the eighth time this season, pacing PLU with 18 points. That effort included hitting a trio of threes and dishing out four assists. Kasidy Javernick finished a bucket shy of matching a season-high, dropping 13 points and securing eight rebounds while Spahr had nine points and six boards. Ava Edmonds contributed eight points and seven boards.

All eight Lutes in uniform saw the floor as depth proved to be a significant factor down the stretch with the Whitman reserves outscoring the Lute bench by a 39-7 margin.

PLU shot 47.4 percent from the floor (nine-for-19) in the opening quarter but slowly cooled off as the game progressed, ending the night shooting at a 34.4 percent clip (21-for-61). Whitman ended the contest shooting at a 45.7 percent clip (32-for-70).

The Lutes finish off their eastern Washington road trip tomorrow afternoon, facing Whitworth University at 4 p.m. in Spokane.