SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. -- The Purdue Northwest Women's Basketball team played a road game on Thursday for the first time in three weeks, traveling up to Sault Ste. Marie to take on the Lake Superior State Lakers. In a quarter that had haunted the Pride in recent games, PNW outscored the Lakers 22-17 in the fourth quarter and 36-26 in the second half as they defeated Lake Superior State 54-46.

"I'm proud of our fight tonight and getting another road win was huge for us," said Head Coach Courtney Locke. "It was an ugly first half and we locked in and got the stops we need in the second half. Bayley  [Goodman] and Elexah [Roepke] were great off the bench tonight."

Danielle Nennig made a jump shot with 10 seconds left in the first quarter that put the Pride up 11-10 heading into the second quarter. Savaya Brockington shot 2-4 from the field and made both of her FT attempts in the quarter, giving her six points to lead the Pride. Anjel Galbraith scored three points as well.

Galbraith then led the Pride in the second quarter with five points, including a three-pointer that put PNW up 18-14 with 5:50 to go in the half. With just under four minutes to play in the quarter, the Lakers went on 6-0 run to regain the lead 20-18, and that would conclude the scoring for the half. The Pride shot 3-11 in the quarter and 7-23 in the half. Six PNW second-quarter turnovers helped the Lakers go on their run and regain the lead. Galbraith (eight), Brockington (eight) and Nennig (two) were the only Pride players to score in the first half, shooting a combined 4-20 from the field, including 1-4 from deep. Mattison Rayman and Lexie Khon led the Lakers in the first half, scoring eight points each on 6-12 shooting combined.

Brockington began the third quarter scoring for the Pride with five early points, including an and-one to tie the score at 25 with 6:38 remaining in the quarter. Roepke made her first appearance of the game felt instantly, as she blocked a Laker shot on one end and got on the scoreboard with a layup at the other end to give the Pride the 29-27 lead with 4:36 left in the third. Goodman then extended the Pride lead to five with a timely three-pointer with 3:06 remaining in the quarter. The Black and Gold outscored the Lakers 14-9 in the third quarter and headed to the fourth quarter with the 32-29 lead. Brockington finished the third scoring seven points to lead PNW.
 
Nennig scored PNW's first four points in the fourth quarter, helping the Pride hold onto the 36-33 lead with 6:58 remaining. Kennedy Jackson then scored an and-one with 5:41 remaining that put PNW up 39-35. Goodman put the Pride up 42-35 and 45-37 within the last four minutes of the game as she drained two more timely three-pointers. Roepke got a block with 1:23 remaining and Galbraith went 5-6 from the free-throw line within the last minute of the game to help secure the win.

For the game, PNW shot 37% from the field, including 4-11 from behind the arc, and shot 16-22 from the free-throw line. Even though they scored only one point between them, Brittany Barnard and Molly DeValkenaere held their own down low, grabbing a team-high six rebounds each. Roepke finished with two points, two rebounds and two blocks in her nine important minutes of action.

Khon and Rayman, the two star forwards for LSSU, combined to score 38 of the Lakers' 46 points. As a team, the Lakers shot 1-19 from three-point range, making their only three-pointer with 10 seconds left in the game. LSSU made 15 of their 19 free-throw attempts and shot 28.8% from the field for the game.

PNW Women's Basketball will next be in action on Saturday, January 25, when they continue their travel and match up against Ferris State in Big Rapids, Michigan. Tipoff is slated for 2 p.m. (CT).