The NAIA No. 3-ranked Sea Lions scored nine-straight points to break a second half deadlock at Concordia Tuesday night en route to a 65-54 Golden State Athletic Conference win.

The Sea Lions scored the first six points of the game and allowed only two points before Planeta made it 15-2 with a made jumper. Instead of running away with a win it was CUI closing the gap to just three points at the break, 31-28.

PLNU went up by seven to open the second but were tracked down by the Eagles at 41-all midway into the second. Kaitlyn Trotter made a free throw and Colleen Planeta sank a bucket to start a nine-point PLNU run. The Sea Lions never looked back, winning by 11.

Planeta led the PLNU offense with 27 points, followed by Amanda Franz with 20 and Danielle Arriola with nine. Planeta also had five blocks and 16 rebounds.

Kayanna Nichols was the only Eagle in double digits in any category with 19 points. CUI made 10 three-pointers in the loss.

"That was a tough game," said Planeta. "It definitely was not pretty, but we showed perseverance at the end. Concordia played hard, just like every team in the GSAC. There are no easy games. When they [CUI] are making threes, they are hard to stop. We hung together as a team and got it done late."

A defensive battle that saw low shooting percentages, PLNU made just 37.9 percent of their shots to best the Eagles' 29.1 percent. The Sea Lions grabbed 40 rebounds, had 19 steals and had eight blocks in their eighth straight win and scored 23 points off of 27 CUI turnovers.

The Eagles won the boards with 41, but had fewer steals and blocks with seven and three, respectively.

Point Loma improved to 15-1 on the season and 6-1 in conference. CUI dropped to 9-5 overall and 2-4 in GSAC. 

The Sea Lions will host No. 20 Westmont College in Golden Gymnasium Thursday at 5:30 p.m. 

-Nathan Scharn