(SAN DIEGO) PLNU Women's Basketball opened up PacWest play with a 60-51 win over Academy of Art on Thursday night inside Golden Gym.
 
The Sea Lions, who had their season ended by the Urban Knights last year in the PacWest Tournament semifinals, held the visitors to just 32% shooting in the win.
 
"We did a really good job taking care of the boards and giving them one shot, which was huge," Head Coach Charity Elliott said.
 
Haylee Saurette, who joined the 1,000 point club on Tuesday, scored the first four points for the Sea Lions on her way to a game-high 15.

The Urban Knights kept the game tight in the first half, until back-to-back PLNU 3-pointers extended Point Loma's lead to nine.
 
Strong defense from the Sea Lions allowed Point Loma to maintain that lead going into the half, 25-16.


 
PLNU struck first after halftime with a layup from Annika Thayer, but the Urban Knights would not go down quietly, putting together a 14-2 run in the third quarter that gave ART U their first and only lead of the second half, 40-39.
 
Point Loma then closed the quarter by scoring seven-straight points, with Shayla O'Neil's jumper and Eiley Tippins' free-throw extending the Sea Lions' advantage back to six entering the fourth quarter.
 
It was all Sea Lions from there, with the team taking its biggest lead of the night off a Haylee Saurette reverse lay-up that put PLNU ahead by 12, 56-44.
 
That basket came off one of Ellie Turk's career-high nine assists, with the team assisting on 20 of 24 made field goals overall.
 
"That just shows that we're a group of very unselfish players," Elliott said. "You watch our bench and see the energy, you see them celebrating each other and being there for each other regardless of what necessarily is happening within their own game. I think that is a pretty cool thing."
 
PLNU went on to win by nine points, while outrebounding ART U 46-29, with Maddie Mersch contributing a career-high 11 rebounds.
 
"We kept talking about, 'How can we get more possessions and get multiple offensive rebounds at a time?'" Elliott said. "Maddie Mersch did a great job on the boards."
 
Joining Saurette in double figures was PacWest Player of the Week Allie Carreon, who added 14 points of her own.
 
"The message going into tonight was staying locked in and buying into our principles," Carreon said. "I feel like that was a big thing for us in getting this win."
 
The win marked a positive start to conference play, with the Sea Lions winning their opening conference game for the fifth-straight season.
 
"It's conference, so everybody is going to bring their best," Elliott said. "We need to start out strong, and as we've been building every game, we need to take care of business."
 
Point Loma (3-5 overall, 1-0 PacWest) is back at home on Saturday, when the Sea Lions will host Dominican in Golden Gym at 1 p.m.
 
"We feel like we have been on the road pretty much all season so far, so it's nice to be home," Elliott said. "We know Saturday is going to be a battle. They always play so hard and are very talented and well-coached. So we have to be ready to go."