Photo by samsphotoservices.com

Claremont, CA— Oxy's women's basketball team went into a road matchup with the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens on Wednesday night having won their last three SCIAC matchups.

The game started off closely contested as Gabriela Etopio made the first layup of the game to give Oxy a 2-0 lead. After that layup Ainsley Shelsta would take over on offense for the Tigers, scoring the team's next 9 points, including a 3-point play that gave Oxy a 11-8 lead. 

The Tigers' lead got up to 9 points after Dara Tokeshi made a layup, but Pomona rallied back to get the lead down to 4 points at the end of the 1st quarter. The Sagehens were staying within striking distance of the Tigers for most of the 2nd quarter but with 5 minutes to go until halftime Toni Thompson made a jumper to make the score 32-23 Tigers.

Oxy then got the lead up to 14 points with a 6-0 offensive scoring run and after Thompson converted on two free throws to close the half, the Tigers took a 43-27 lead into halftime by outscoring the Sagehens 19-7 in the 2nd quarter. 

The Tigers' strong play continued into the 2nd half and the lead was up to 25 points after Paige Yasukochi knocked down a jumper and after Michelle Lagunas-Monroy made a jumper to close the 3rd quarter, the Oxy lead was 64-42. 

Oxy's lead would remain in the 20's for the remainder of the game as the team continued to make plays on offense and play strong defense. The Tigers would go on to defeat the Sagehens by a score of 85-65. With the win, Oxy improves to 7-2 in the SCIAC. With the win, the Tigers move into 2nd place in the SCIAC. 

Toni Thompson led the way offensively in this game with 29 points, 12 rebounds and 3 steals. Ainsley Shelsta also had a double double with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Paige Yasukcohi made all 4 of her free throws and had 4 assists and 8 points. 

9 different Tigers had a made field goal in the game and the team shot 47.9% from the field in the game and scored 40 points in the paint and 19 points off of turnovers. 

The Tigers will next play when they face off with the Southern California Leadership University Rhinos on Saturday, January 20th at 2pm in Rush Gymnasium.