Box Score

Photo by samsphotoservices.com

La Verne, CA— Occidental's women's basketball team traveled to La Verne to take on the Leopards on Saturday afternoon. 

Oxy got off to a strong start in the first quarter, led by Toni Thompson and Paige Yasukochi who scored the teams first 12 points as the Tigers took a 12-6 lead early on. With two minutes left in the 1st quarter an Ainsley Shelsta layup assisted by Thompson had Oxy up 17-10. La Verne battled back to make it 17-14 at the end of one quarter. 

Dara Tokeshi made the first basket of the 2nd quarter, knocking down a 3-pointer before Toni Thompson followed with a made jumper and Oxy's lead was back to 8. The Leopards continued to battle back as they would go on a quick 5-0 run and cut the lead back down to 3 points. Eventually, La Verne tied the game at 23 before Tokeshi made another 3-pointer for )xy to make it 26-23 Tigers. 

The rest of the quarter was closely contested but Oxy would be able to take a 35-33 lead into the halftime break. In the 3rd quarter, Ainsley Shelsta and Dominique Cabading scored Oxy's first two baskets and the team was up by 4 points. The Tiger lead was up to 7 points after a Michelle Lagunas-Monroy 3-point play with 6 minutes left in the quarter. The lead would even get up to 9 points after a Tokeshi made jumper with 3 minutes to go in the quarter. 

The Tiger lead heading into the 4th and final quarter would be 53-44.La Verne put together a good run to get the lead down to 4 points with 5 minutes to play in the game. A Paige Yasukochi made layup had Oxy up 4 points with 4 minutes to go but La Verne quickly retaliated with two made jumpers and the game was tied at 60. 

After Toni Thompson made two big free throws with 1:30 in the game left, La Verne converted a 3-point play to take a one point lead and then made a layup to make the score 65-62 La Verne. Oxy would be forced to foul and La Verne would make their free throws to seal the game with a final score of 71-66. 

Toni Thompson continued her solid play with 28 points and 13 rebounds. Paige Yasukochi had a great all-around game for Oxy with 14 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Dara Tokeshi made 2 3-pointers and had 8 points in the game. Ainsley Shelsta had 9 rebounds and 5 points. 

The Tigers are now 10-2 on the year and 3-2 in conference play and will be back in action on the road against CMS on Wednesday, January 10th at 7pm in Claremont, CA.