Complete Box Score and Play by Play

FOREST GROVE, Ore. -- (From Blake Timm, Pacific SID) The young Whitworth women's basketball team saw its season come to a disappointing end after the Pirates could not overcome the emotion of three graduating seniors at Pacific who led the Boxers to a 69-66 Northwest Conference women's basketball victory on Saturday night.

Seniors DeeDee Arnall, Shelley Rietmann and Shannon Janes were honored prior to tip-off and were sent out on a high note with a win.

Arnall unloaded on the Pirates offensively as she registered a game-high 32 points on 10 of 16 shooting. She reeled in 11 rebounds and scorched the net at the free throw line, connecting on 11 of 12. Amy Petersen pitched in eight points and Rietmann scored six. Holly Ridings led Whitworth with 21 points while sister Amy netted 12 to pace the Pirates.

The first half of the contest started out at a blazing pace with Pacific (8-17, 3-13 NWC) and Whitworth (13-11, 7-9 NWC) tied at 21 halfway through the stanza. Rietmann came out tallying the first four Boxer points on a field goal and a pair of free throws, making the score 8-4 in favor of the Pirates with 17:25 left. Arnall connected on three of her 20 first half points with a longball to give the Boxers a 15-12 lead with 14:07 left in the frame.

Ridings did her best to spoil senior night for the Boxers in the first half by drilling four three-pointers, with her last coming at the 5:18 mark to give the Pirates a 32-28 edge. Shanna Rietmann came off the bench to provide a spark for the Boxers as she hit a three-pointer with 3:51 left, then followed her trey with a lay-up to push the Boxers ahead 36-32 with 3:21 left. Whitworth would go on an 11-0 run to close out the half, fueled by seven Megan Beauchamp points to account for the 43-36 halftime score.

Pacific started to make its move at the 11:07 mark when Pedersen drilled a three-pointer to bring the Boxers within five, 58-53. Whitworth pushed the lead to 62-55 with 6:03 left in the contest, but the Boxers mounted a
comeback and took the lead 64-62 on a Kristina Stevens jumper with 3:41 remaining.

Whitworth would not go out easily, as Holly Ridings buried a three-pointer with six seconds left to cut the Boxer lead to 68-66. The Pirates were forced to foul immediately on the inbound pass, which sent Ashley Stewart to the charity stripe. Stewart knocked down one of two free throws to seal the victory for the Boxers.