The Pirate women fell to visiting George Fox in overtime, losing 78-71 on Feb. 12 in the Whitworth Fieldhouse.
The Bruins improved to 18-5 overall, 12-2 in the Northwest Conference and remain tied with Lewis & Clark for first place in the NWC. Whitworth is now 11-12 and 7-7 in the NWC, and the Pirates are tied with Whitman and Linfield for fourth place in the conference standings.
Whitworth started with a 14-10 lead seven minutes into the game. Later in the half, Lexi Belcher scored five consecutive points to make it 29-21, which gave the Pirates their largest lead of the night. But Arianna Mohsenian hit a three before halftime to make the score 29-24.
The Bruins came into the second half strong, taking an early lead and extending it to 43-35 with Keisha Gordon’s three-pointer six minutes into the half. Belcher challenged this lead with a three-pointer, and Whitworth went up 51-49 with a three-point play by Hannah Ostic.
The game was close after that, with five lead changes, and Belcher put up a basket with eight seconds left on the clock and forced the game to go into overtime. But George Fox outscored Whitworth 12-5 in overtime and claimed the win.
The Bruins’ Hannah Munger and Keisha Gordon scored a combined 59 points and 23 rebounds to help GFU win.
For the Pirates, Belcher led with 18 points. Taylor Taylor added 16 points, and Emily Guthrie scored 14 points with four assists.
Whitworth travels to play Whitman on Tuesday, a game which will help determine the fourth spot in the Northwest Conference playoffs. George Fox plays at Linfield next Friday.