SPOKANE, Wash. – McMurry University women's basketball dropped its opening game of its two-game road trip to the Pacific Northwest, falling to Whitman College, 83-57. The War Hawks fell to 0-3, while the Blues improved to 3-2 overall.
 
McM found itself trailing by 11 points, 22-11, after the first period of action. The Blues went on a 9-0 run to open the game. The War Hawks first points of the night came on a Skyler Reyna layup at the 7:07 juncture of the opening stanza.
 
The War Hawks trailed by as much as 19 with 2:24 left in the second quarter, 40-21. But McMurry scored the final six points of the period -  with four free throws made and an Autumn Johnson layup - to trail by 13 at the intermission, 40-27.
 
The Blues pulled away in the second half, outscoring McM by a 27-20 count in the third period to lead 67-37. The War Hawks were out-done in the fourth, 16-10 for the 83-57 final score.
 
As a team, McMurry shot 31 percent from the floor (18-58) and hit 3-of-20 from beyond the arc. Conversely, Whitman was a blistering 50 percent (33-of-66) from the floor and canned 6-of-15 three-point attempts.
 
The Blues utilized their inside game to create separation from McM. The War Hawks were out-scored 40-28 in the paint and found themselves out-rebounded by a 46-33 margin.
 
Junior forward Skyler Reyna led the McM squad with 12 points, hitting of 5-of-12 field goals. Reyna also pulled down five rebounds and had a team-leading three steals.
 
Brittany Rodgers came off the McMurry bench to add 10 points in her 24 minutes of court time. Rodgers was 3-of-8 from the field and 4-of-6 from the free throw stripe.
 
The War Hawks' Johnson sisters – Autumn and Savannah – combined for 17 points. Autumn had nine points and a team-leading nine rebounds, while Savannah chipped in eight points on a 3-for-6 shooting night.
 
Senior guard Dominique Machuca was 2-for-3 from long range to account for her six points. Sarah Doherty and London Weilert each tallied four points, with Jaymi Gordon-Dean adding three and Isabel Carrion one to round out the War Hawks' scoring.
 
McMurry will take on host Whitworth University on Sunday at 3 p.m. Central to close out the two-game swing to the Pacific Northwest.