THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (Feb. 5, 2009) – The women's
basketball team secured a 59-34 road victory over Cal Lutheran
University on Thursday evening while Whittier College upset the
then undefeated at home University of La Verne to push the Tigers
and Leopards into a first-place tie in the Southern California
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference standings.
Occidental jumped on the shoulders of Brianne
Brown whose three-pointer with 10:35 to play in the
opening half of action gave Oxy a lead they would maintain
throughout regulation. Brown finished as the only player in double
figures as she chipped in 19 points. Dior Williams
was 4-for-6 from the field (hitting her only three-point attempt)
to score nine points. Ten different Tigers scored in the win,
including Madeline Rose and Natalie
Kolodinski who were each 2-for-2 from the charity stripe.
The duo of Brown and Williams were defensive menaces as they
stole the ball a combined 11 times as the Tigers forced 33
Regals' turnovers, resulting in 27 of Occidental's
points. Gillian Nugent added four steals as well.
Brown was also responsible for the only block of the game.
Stephanie Babij led all players with 12
rebounds as Oxy grabbed 39 to CLU's 28. The Tigers pulled
down 15 offensive rebounds, which led to 14 second chance points.
All three of Rose's rebounds were on the offensive end and
Asha Jordan also grabbed three offensive boards,
finishing with seven. Brown tallied five.
The Tigers opened up a 10 point lead at half time and
Britinee Yasukochi nailed a three-pointer with
11:23 to play in the second half to put Oxy up by double-figures
again. An 11-1 run in the final five minutes of action put the game
away for the black and orange.
With the win Occidental improves to 15-5, 7-2 in SCIAC play and
move into a tie with La Verne (15-4, 7-2) . Cal Lutheran drops to
5-15 overall, 3-6 in conference match-ups.
Occidental returns to Rush Gymnasium on Saturday evening to face
off with Pomona-Pitzer at 5:00 p.m. before the men's teams
tip-off. Earlier this season the Tigers defeated the Sagehens 62-51
on the road.
