PORTLAND, Ore. – In their first ever Cascade Collegiate Conference contest, the Multnomah University women's basketball dropped a close battle to cross-town rival Warne Pacific, 60-53, on Tuesday night on Jim Skagen Court.
 
The Lions fall to 2-6 on the year, 0-1 in CCC play while the Knights continue their host streak improving to 5-1 overall, 1-0 CCC.
 
How It Happened: The Lions came out strong to start their conference play, jumping out to a 7-2 lead. After that, Warner used a 9-0 run to reclaim the lead before closing the first quarter with a 15-9 advantage.
 
The second quarter started much like the first one did for the Lions as they scored the first seven points after a layup by Michaela Weller made it 16-15. Tied 26-26, MU's Valerie Wakefield knocked down her second three of the quarter, giving the Lions a 29-26 advantage at the half way point.
 
Both teams shot 11-of-25 after two quarters of play to finish the half shooting 44 percent from the field. Lindsay Loe led the Knights with six points while Wakefield totaled eight in the first half.
 
In the second half, the Knights put up eight more shots than MU while shooting 40 percent as both teams battled to start off conference play with a win.
 
The Lions took their largest lead of the night with 7:35 left in the third quarter after two free throws by junior Miranda Schmillen made it 34-28.
 
Moments after that, Warner Pacific used a 10-0 run to get ahead 38-34 but couldn't hang on as the teams entered the final quarter of play tied 39-39.
 
With just under three minutes to go and the score once again tied 51-51, foul trouble plagued the Lions as the Knights scored three of their last four points at the line to win 60-53.
 
By the Numbers: Wakefield finished as the point leader for MU win 15 points, knocking down 3-of-4 from deep and 4-of-5 from the line while Lacie Kamper completed her second double-double of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
 
The Lions finished the night shooting 40.4 percent from the field while totaling 31 rebounds compared to Warner Pacific's 34 rebounds.
 
Leading the Knights was Loe with 16 points folloed by Daesha Jackson with 13 points and Kendra Preuninger with seven.
 
From the Coach: "That was a coming of age game for us tonight. We are starting to understand that we can play at this level," said head coach Tim Bieri. "We will continue to stress rebounding and finishing around the basket, and some of these close games will go our way very soon. We have a group where all 16 people in our program are extremely valuable and I'm excited to get to practice tomorrow and keep learning and building on the good things from tonight."
 
Coming Up Next: The Lions stay at home as they prepare to host The Evergreen State College on Friday night while Warner hosts Northwest University.