The Linfield women’s basketball team began conference play Friday night with a tough 83-75 loss to George Fox. They bounced back on Saturday and squeezed out a 70-65 win at Pacific.

Linfield fought for three quarters against the No. 21 Bruins, but was unable to hang on. The Bruins ran away in the fourth quarter to spoil the Wildcats’ home opener.

The Bruins got off to a good start, but the Wildcats shot a near perfect 11 for 12 in the second quarter to put them up 49-47 at halftime.

After three quarters, the game was tied at 64. The Wildcats needed a solid final quarter to pull off the upset. But the Bruins took the lead and never looked back. The Wildcats hit shots late in the quarter, but it was not enough to overcome the initial 10-point deficit.

Genna Hughes, ’19, and Kory Oleson, ’20, both put up a team-high 16 points in the loss. Molly Danielson, ’20, the team’s leading scorer this season, followed with 13 points.

“Our team played a great game against a competitive team, but we weren’t satisfied with playing only 3 ½ quarters,” Danielson said.

Saturday’s game against Pacific stood as an opportunity for the Wildcats to learn from the previous game’s mistakes and play until the buzzer goes off. Fortunately, they did just that.

A combination of 10 steals, a plethora of rebounding and an outstanding 39 points coming from the bench to the Boxers’ 16 made the difference.

A six-point lead after the first quarter set the tone. From then on, both teams traded points and the Wildcats held on to seal their first conference win. Their longest period of time with the lead was roughly 37 minutes.

Oleson led the charge again with 19 points, eight rebounds and two assists, while shooting a perfect eight for eight at the free-throw line. Danielson put up another 13 points once again.

“We had to show up with the same intensity as last night’s game,” Oleson said referring to Friday’s loss to George Fox. “We’ve been working on putting four quarters together and I think we did that tonight. Everything we do starts on the defensive end.”

The Wildcats will host Eastern Oregon and UC-Santa Cruz on Dec. 9 and 10, respectively. Saturday’s game will commence at 4 p.m. and Sunday’s will begin at 2 p.m. in the Ted Wilson Gymnasium.

Shooting for two wins in the upcoming weekend series of games, Danielson said that the team’s plan is to continue to come out with the mentality to outwork teams.

“This weekend was a good learning opportunity for us to improve,” Danielson said.