Three takeaways from Pacific’s OT victory at Saint Mary’s

For the second straight game, the Pacific women’s basketball team had to survive overtime to come out as winners, this time to open West Coast Conference play on the road at Saint Mary’s.

After letting a doubledigit second half lead slip away the Tigers (3-1, 1-0 WCC) won against the Gaels (2-5, 0-1 WCC) 78-70 in overtime.

“For us to fight those woes, then give up a little bit of a lead in the fourth quarter, then come back again and get it in overtime, I was proud with my team right now,” Pacific head coach Bradley Davis said.

Here are three quick takeaways from Pacific’s first conference game of the season.

A senior and sophomore put the Tigers on

their backs — By the time Valerie Higgins took her first rest in the second half with five minutes left in the third quarter, Pacific’s lead blossomed to 13 points.

Higgins, the senior guard, has been the Tigers’ best source of scoring all season, as she has averaged over 16 points. And when things finally started going right for the Tigers against the Gaels, it was Higgins at the epicenter.

“I went in thinking this was my last first game of conference,” Higgins said. “Just give it everything that I got. As a senior I just need to be a leader on the floor and push the team, do the little things, bring energy, talk, communicate and that was mindset going in.”

Higgins was Pacific’s offensive focal point in the second half and finished with a game-high with 26 points and eight rebounds.

A quick steal to open the third quarter led to a Higgins layup to put the Tigers up 31-25. A three-point play a minute later stretched the lead to nine. And a layup with 5:50 left in the quarter put Higgins up to 14 points, and the Tigers up 44-29.

Higgins’ importance to Pacific’s success showed as soon as she went to the bench. The Gaels immediately went on a 12-0 run, and when Higgins re-entered the game, she calmly got the Tigers back on track with a baseline layup.

Down the stretch she tried to will the Tigers to a victory. A layup off of an offensive rebound gave Pacific a 61-58 lead with 1:37 left. After the Gaels took a 63-61 lead with under a minute left, Higgins tied the game at 63 with 35 seconds remaining.

Higgins would have been the main story of this game, if it wasn’t for sophomore Sam Ashby who matched her bucket-forbucket.

In overtime Ashby stepped up for the Tigers, scoring the first five points of the extra period. In her first career start, the Australian native scored 24 points and added eight rebounds.

“When I first found out I was going to start I was actually really nervous,” Ashby said. “Getting out on the court with everyone’s energy just brought me up and it felt great.”

When the Gaels cut Pacific’s 70-65 lead to two points, Ashby added to her career-high with a scooped layup to put the Tigers up 72-68.

“I would say we are a big energy team, so just to get those first five points and put us in front really kept us out there,” Ashby said.

When the lead got cut to two points again, it was Higgins turn to help the Tigers, putting them up 7470 with under a minute left in overtime. And it was Higgins putting the final touches on the game with two free-throws and a steal.

Rebounding and defense saved Pacific’s first

half — For most of this season Davis has praised his team’s ability to find the right people, in the right positions to take the right shots. Through most of the first half, the Tigers weren’t doing that, and when open, struggled to find any sort of offensive flow.

Pacific scored just 10 points in the first quarter and led 29-25 at the half. It was the Tigers’ defense and rebounding that supplemented their struggling offense.

“Defensively this team is going to fight,” Higgins said. “We are going to get on the floor. We are going to box out. We are going to do everything, get into help. And everybody just wants to get stops to win.”

Pacific and Saint Mary’s each recorded 26 rebounds in the first half and six offensive rebounds, but the Tigers took advantage of the nine steals their defense created before halftime. Pacific scored seven of its 29 first half points off of turnovers, and held a 160 advantage in fast break points, including senior guard Lianna Tillman’s buzzer beater 3-pointer at the end of the half to give the Tigers its four-point lead.

The Lincoln grad finished with seven points.

This win can serve as a tone-setter going forward — Pacific received a tough draw to open its conference slate. Three road games against three teams that were picked to finish above the Tigers in the preseason WCC poll. Wednesday’s victory against the Gaels could set the tone for the remainder of that stretch.

“We have a lot of confidence I think now going in, starting conference with a win,” Higgins said. “We had a couple people out, it was their first game back, so it was just good to get everybody on the floor and be able to get a win going into our road trip we have coming up.”

The Tigers now travel to play Portland on Jan. 2, then head to Washington to play at Gonzaga, the WCC preseason favorite, on Jan. 4. Last year, Pacific was successful against both teams, sweeping Portland in its two meetings, and pushing the Bulldogs to the brink in one of its two losses to Gonzaga last year.

“You got to get one in the win column. As coaches we know that, especially with the next four games we have coming up,” Davis said.