(SAN DIEGO) If winning the Thanksgiving Classic over the weekend wasn't a sign enough of PLNU Women's Basketball's growth this season, then the Sea Lions' performance on Tuesday night against the preseason No. 1 team in the D2SIDA Media Poll surely was.
 
Point Loma went toe-to-toe with now No. 14 Western Washington, holding the lead multiple times, including with five minutes remaining, before the Vikings held off the Sea Lions by a final score of 73-64 on Tuesday night inside Golden Gym.
 
"I'm nothing but proud of our team tonight," Head Coach Charity Elliott said. "We battled for forty minutes against a very experienced team and we didn't back down."
 
In front of a boisterous home crowd, Point Loma started brightly with Ellie Turk scoring 10 points in the first five-plus minutes.
 
After WWU scored the first two baskets of the game, PLNU made its intentions known when Allie Carreon's lead pass found a streaking Turk for a layup.
 
It was a sign of things to come from the Sea Lions' backcourt duo, which combined for 37 points on the night to lead the team.
 
"Allie Carreon and Ellie Turk led us all the way and everyone on our team followed our plan to bear perfection," Elliott said.
 
Turk (seven rebounds, six assists), who scored a game-high 21 points, and Carreon (16 points) combined to shoot 9-for-13 from behind the arc, helping Point Loma keep pace with a team that reached the NCAA Division II National Championship a season ago.
 
A Carreon triple gave PLNU its first lead of the game in the first quarter, before Turk hit back-to-back 3's to put the Sea Lions up by five.
 
WWU closed the first quarter on a 7-0 run to lead 17-15 after one, before PLNU quickly retook its advantage early in the second period after Carreon hit another shot from deep.
 
After the Vikings went back ahead midway through the quarter, Haylee Saurette drove to the basket to tie the game and score her 1,000th point in a Point Loma uniform.
 

Congratulations to Haylee Saurette for becoming the latest @PLNU_WBB player to join the 1,000 Point Club! pic.twitter.com/89qWAEqkAT

— PLNU Sea Lions (@PLNUSeaLions) November 30, 2022

 
The visitors then threatened to run away with the game by scoring seven-straight points, prompting a Sea Lion timeout. But Elliott's group responded out of the timeout, with a Maddie Mersch jumper, a Carreon 3 and an Eiley Tippins layup tying the contest once more.
 
After a midrange jumper gave Western Washington a slim two-point lead at the half, a trio of Turk 3-pointers in the third quarter kept Point Loma within striking distance.
 
WWU led by six after three but the game was far from over.
 
A few minutes into the fourth quarter, a Carreon triple cut the deficit to one, before she got her defender to bite on a pump fake and kicked to Saurette for a baseline jumper to give the Sea Lions their first lead since early in the second period.
 
After the Vikings scored on the other end, Mersch grabbed an offensive rebound and finished at the basket to put PLNU back up by one with just over five minutes remaining.
 
But that was the last lead Point Loma held, as Western Washington began to pull away late with an efficient 12-for-14 mark from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter alone, which proved to be the difference in the game with the Sea Lions only managing to shoot 7-for-21 overall from the charity stripe.
 
"We've got to reward ourselves at the free throw line. That was costly tonight," Elliott said. "But all-in-all, we learned a lot about ourselves tonight and will use this momentum as we start conference."
 
Saurette almost joined Turk and Carreon in double figures with a near double-double of eight points and 10 rebounds.
 
"Congrats to Haylee on reaching 1,000 points tonight," Elliott said. "That's a huge accomplishment."
 
Point Loma (2-5 overall) has built some positive momentum entering conference play, having picked up a pair of wins in Nampa, Idaho over the weekend before Tuesday's near-upset victory.
 
PLNU has a quick turnaround though with its PacWest schedule beginning on Thursday, when the Sea Lions host Academy of Art at 5:30 p.m.
 
The Urban Knights won last year's PacWest Tournament title, defeating Point Loma in the semifinals.