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Claremont, CA— Oxy women's basketball traveled to Claremont to take on the CMS Athenas in a conference matchup on Wednesday night. 

Oxy got off to a nice start, quickly jumping out to a 8-4 lead with 4 points coming from a Paige Yasukochi made layup and a made jumper. Ainsley Shlesta would extend the lead to 6 points with a made layup in the paint.

The 1st quarter was back and forth, but Amaia McCoy had a nice layup in the paint for Oxy's last basket in the quarter before CMS responded with one of their own to take a 17-16 into the 2nd quarter.

CMS jumped out to a 9 point lead with a 10-2 run to start the 2nd quarter before Shelsta stopped the bleeding for Oy with a made layup. Toni Thompson got the Tigers within 4 points with a made 3-pointer before CMS responded with a made jumper. Thompson responded with a jumper of her own but CMS scored twice after to get the lead back up to 8 points. The half would come to a close with Micah Elegores making a layup for Oxy but CMS would hold a 37-32 lead going into halftime.

The 3rd quarter started with the Tigers scoring the first two baskets as Gabriela Etopio made a layup that got Oxy within 1 point. Oxy took the lead on an Ainsley Shelsta made layup and Thompson extended it to 3 points with a layup on the next possession.

The game was back and forth in the 3rd quarter with both teams grabbing multiple leads. Thompson tied the game at 53 with a jumper and knocked down a 3-pointer to give the lead back to Oxy with 1 minute to go in the 3rd. The Tigers would take a 3 point lead into the final quarter after Michelle Lagunas-Monroy made a jumper off of an assist from Amaia McCoy. 

The game remained close for the start of the 4th quarter and the Athenas even took a 1 point lead on a layup with 7 minutes to go in the game, but Oxy responded in a huge way by putting together a 21-2 run that was capped off by a Dara Tokeshi made 3-pointer to make the score 83-65 Oxy. 

The Tigers would go on to win by a score of 83-67 to secure their 4th SCIAC win of the season and improve to 4-2 in conference play on the year. Toni Thompson had another incredible scoring output with 35 points while also grabbing 6 rebounds and 4 steals. 

Ainsley Shelsta had a great game as well with 18 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists. Paige Yasukochi made 4 of 9 shots to score 9 points to go along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Dominique Cabading was finding open teammates all game long and had 9 assists to show for it.

It was an all around team effort for Oxy and they will look to keep the momentum going as they head into a road matchup with the Redlands Bulldogs on Saturday, January 13th at 7pm.