KIRKLAND – Northwest's early success was enough to stave off a sluggish fourth quarter and the Eagles claimed a 62-51 win over Pacific Lutheran on Saturday.
Northwest was one-of-nine from the field with nine turnovers in the fourth quarter but had muscled its way to a substantial lead, especially in the first quarter.
NU shot 52 percent from the field in the opening quarter and built a 27-10 lead. Grace Meza had a dozen points in the first quarter while the defense produced six turnovers, including four steals while holding PLU to 21 percent shooting.
"Throughout the season you look for learning opportunities and there were a lot of them in this game today," said NU Head Coach Ken Crawford. "We came out strong, maintained for a while, and then really fell off in the fourth quarter. PLU came out with a lot of energy in the fourth quarter and we learned what we need to do with our height and with our versatility. It is always nice to sweep and we got two wins this weekend. So we learned a lot and we won two games."
Meza led the Eagles with 16 points and nine rebounds, followed by Sam VanLoo with 15 points, five blocks, and six rebounds. Livi Lindsey led with four assists.
NU scored the game's first 11 points in the dominating first quarter. Meza had seven points in that opening flurry.
Northwest's biggest lead of the day came in the second quarter at 22 points on two occasions. The Eagles led 42-28 at halftime.
The Lutes trimmed the lead to eight points with 1:42 left in the game, but Maya DuChesne added a pair of free throws and VanLoo tacked on another for the final margin.
The Eagles moved to 8-2, their best 10-game start, and travel to Portland next weekend to face Warner Pacific Friday night and Multnomah Saturday afternoon.