GEORGETOWN, Texas -- Texas Lutheran withstood a couple of Southwestern's second-half rallies and collected a 71-64 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference victory Tuesday evening in Georgetown, Texas.

TLU improved to 10-7 overall and to 6-2 in the SCAC. Southwestern, tied for the SCAC lead entering the contest, fell to 6-10 overall and to 5-2 in the SCAC.

Once in the third quarter and once in the fourth quarter, Southwestern cut the TLU lead down to one, but the Pirates never took the lead. TLU pulled away in the middle of the fourth quarter and kept the Pirates at bay down the stretch.

After Southwestern moved within one at the 7:14 mark of the fourth quarter, Abby Hroch (Port Lavaca/Calhoun) scored on back-to-back possessions and Tara Molina (San Antonio/Johnson) drained a three-pointer to push the TLU lead quickly back to eight with 5:31 remaining.

After a Morgan Rodriguez (New Braunfels/Canyon) layup, Kasey Hairell (Hallettsville/Hallettsville) completed a three-point play with 3:01 to play to push the TLU lead back into double digits, 60-50.

Southwestern would get no closer than seven the rest of the way.

When the Pirates pushed within one point near the end of the third quarter, freshman guard Jenesis Navarro (San Antonio/Lee) hit a pair of three-pointers and Rodriguez completed a three-point play for a quick 9-0 run.

TLU led 31-22 at the half and 46-39 at the end of the third.

Hairell and Navarro each scored 14 for TLU. Hairell grabbed five rebounds and blocked two shots. Navarro also pulled down five boards and dished out three assists.

Rodriguez chipped in nine points and three rebounds, and Molina scored eight and tallied eight assists. Hroch also scored eight, and she had four rebounds.

Southwestern post Cecily Woolfork scored 31, but she was the only Pirate in double figures. Woolfork made nine field goals and went 12-for-14 at the line. Woolfork grabbed 10 rebounds and had two assists, a block, and a steal.

Woolfork made the lone three-pointer of the night for Southwestern.

TLU hit eight three-pointers. Navarro made three, and Molina had two.

The Bulldogs return to Seguin for Friday's conference doubleheader with the University of Dallas. The women's game starts at 5:30 p.m., and the men's game starts at 7:30 p.m.

Seguin radio station KWED 1580 AM will broadcast both TLU v. Dallas contests. The audio stream will be available on seguintoday.com. Links to the TLU video broadcast (with KWED audio), the live stats, and the KWED webcast will be available on tlubulldogs.com.