Kayla Bustos scored seven points in her first start of the season for the Cavs,
Concordia Stops Lutes 70-52
STATS - Concordia vs. Pacific Lutheran
PORTLAND, Ore.—After a tight first half, Concordia dominated play after the break to defeat Pacific Lutheran 70-52 in non-conference women’s basketball action on Saturday night.
Snapping a three-game skid, Concordia improved to 4-7 on the season and 3-2 against members of the Northwest Conference with the win. Meanwhile, PLU dropped to 3-4 on the year. The Cavs will next take the floor next Sunday when they host Davenport (Mich.) with a 1 p.m. start on the campus of Concordia University. The Panthers were ranked No. 5 in the most recent NAIA Coaches' Poll.
Concordia used a constant full-court press that bothered Pacific Lutheran for much of the game. All told, the CU defense forced PLU into 28 turnovers in the game, while the Cavs scored 34 points off those turnovers, just under half of their entire point total.
After falling behind early, the Cavalier defense took control late in the first half after free throws from Mackenzie Bieker pushed the Lutes lead to 26-23 with 3:56 remaining in the period. Concordia followed with a 23-4 run that spanned the end of the first and the beginning of the second half and vaulted Concordia ahead of the Lutes 46-30 with 12:29 remaining.
Pacific Lutheran cut the Cavs lead back down to 10 later, but another 9-0 CU run pushed Concordia to its biggest lead of the night to that point with the score 60-41 with only 4:16 remaining.
Earlier in the first half, CU's Megan Padilla single-handedly pushed the Cavs back into the mix after PLU took its biggest lead of the night at 22-16. Following a pair of made free throws, Padilla nailed a 3-pointer to pull the Cavs to within one with 5:27 left. On the next possession, Padilla assisted Charlie Neilan for the go-ahead score and give the Cavs their first lead of the game at 23-22.
The Lutes edged the Cavs in shooting percentage 46 percent to 35 percent in the opening half and outrebounded the Cavs 19-to-15, but 14 turnovers over the first 20 minutes of play killed many offensive sets in the first half.
Then, once in the second half, the Cavaliers' came out hot and outshot PLU 54.5 percent to 30.8 percent from the floor in the period for a 44.7-to-34 advantage overall.
Padilla led the Cavs individually with game-highs of 17 points and three steals. Besides Padilla, senior Courtney May also scored in double-figures with 11 points, while every Cavalier suited up for the game scored.
On the flip side, Bieker and Shelly Kilcup tied for the Lutes' lead with 12 points each, while Samantha Potter added 10. Potter also nearly recorded a double-double with a game-high nine rebounds.