Click here for complete box score

PORTLAND, Ore. - Alida Bower scored a career-high 34 points to help visiting Whitworth overcome an 11-point first half deficit and defeat Lewis & Clark 65-61 in a Northwest Conference women’s basketball game on Friday night in Portland.

Alida Bower

Whitworth (11-6) has rebounded from an 0-2 start to the NWC season to head into the halfway point 5-3. Lewis & Clark fell to 8-8, 2-5.

Kimberly Kittell’s jumper with just over three minutes left in the first half gave the Pioneers a 27-16 lead, their largest of the game. But the Pirates finished the half on a 6-0 run, including five points by Bower (Sr., F, Onalaska, Wash.), to pull within 27-22 at halftime.

Trailing 37-31 five minutes into the second half, Whitworth went on a 16-2 run to take a 47-39 lead. Bower scored 11 of the points and made three of her career-high seven three-pointers during the run. Whitworth took its largest lead of the game at 53-43 with 8:22 to play when Bower drained another three-pointer.

But L&C fought back to tie the game 59-59 with 2:22 to play on a basket by Tallera Rich. The Pirates then outscored the Pioneers 6-2 the rest of the way. Cassie Pilkinton (Jr., F, Chelan, Wash.) scored the game-winning basket with 31 seconds to play and Tiffany Corigliano (Sr., P, Nine Mile Falls, Wash.) sank the clinching free throws with four seconds left, her only points of the game.

Bower finished 12 of 22 from the field, 7 of 12 from three point range, to surpass the previous career high of 30 points she scored in last season’s second-to-last game, a win over Whitman. She also had a team-high eight rebounds. Pilkinton added 14 points, while Leah Pomante and Ren Mallory had four assists each.

Margaret Dowling led L&C with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Christina Herring added 13 points.

Whitworth will begin the second half of conference play next Friday at 10th-ranked George Fox.