It was a sweet Valentine’s Day indeed as the Denver Pioneer women’s basketball team managed their first win after three straight losses.

The Pioneers defeated the University of New Orleans Privateers 60-52 Saturday in Magness Arena after falling to 46-63 to them earlier in the season.

“This team has beaten us in New Orleans, so there was a little bit of a revenge factor there as well,” head coach Erik Johnson said. “We obviously love our home court advantage here in Denver, and we want to prove we are better than they are on our court even though they got us down there.”

Freshman Kaetlyn Murdoch dominated the game and led the Pioneers to victory with 14 points, five assists, four blocks, nine rebounds and played 31 total minutes.

Including Murdoch, four Pioneers scored in the double digits. Andie Mason with 14, Britteni Rice with 11 and Ashley Robinson with 10. The leading scorer of the game, however, was UNO’s Jada Frazier with 21 points.

The Pioneers shot 40.8 percent from the field on 20-of-49, while finishing 77.8 percent from the free-throw line on 14-of-18. The difference in the game was that Denver was able to capitalize on their turnovers much more efficiently than UNO, outscoring the Privateers 19-13 on opponent’s turnovers.

The first half of the game was a stalemate as neither team managed to maintain a lead throughout the quarter. At the end of the first half, the game was tied due to a last effort lay-up by Murdoch.

In the second half, Denver took the lead with yet another lay-up by Murdoch. After the lay-up, Denver did not relinquish the lead for the remainder of the game.

The Pioneers’ greatest lead came with 7:34 remaining as a three-pointer by Rice put Denver up by 11, 51-40.

UNO was able to pull within four twice during the final five minutes of action. However, Denver’s defense was too stingy as they overcame the attack and held on for the win.

Murdoch led the Pioneers in the second half with 10 points.

“It was also a huge game in the standings because they were a half a game behind us,” Johnson said. “So we needed to be able to win this game to separate ourselves from them for the final conference standings.”

This game put Denver in the No. 2 spot of the Sun Belt Conference West standings, just beneath University of Arkansas Little Rock.

Denver plays its next game on Wednesday as the Pioneers take on Louisiana-Lafayette in another SBC match-up.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Magness Arena.