Los Angeles, CA — The Occidental women's basketball team hosted the Stanton University Elks on Saturday afternoon in Rush Gym for the first game of the regular season.
The Tigers were clicking on all cylinders in this one, quickly jumping out to a double digit lead thanks to good play making and passes that were leading to open buckets. Pick and rolls were freeing up Ainsley Shelsta in the paint and she proved to be too much for the Elks to deal with inside, scoring 6 of the first 15 Tiger points.
Halfway through the 1st quarter, Paige Yasukochi knocked down a three-pointer to extend the lead to 15 points at a score of 22-7. The Tigers offensive firepower was too much early on for Stanton and Oxy would lead by 21 at the end of a quarter of play.
Dara Tokeshi and Shelsta led the way for the Tigers in the 2nd quarter, scoring the first 11 points of the quarter to continue to extend the lead. Kayla Ikuma ended the half with a layup and a made three to extend the lead to 33 points at 58-25.
Oxy kept Stanton at bay for the rest of the game with defensive pressure and quality offense, and the 2nd half of the game was more of the same.The Elks were unable to put a scoring run together to get the lead back down to single digits, and Oxy would run away with it in the 2nd half to win 107-51.
6 Tigers scored in double figures as the team kept up good ball movement the whole game, getting different players open and knocking down easy baskets. Shelsta led the way with a team-high 19 points on 9-12 shooting from the field while adding 9 rebounds and 2 blocks.
Oxy kept the pressure on the Elks by driving into the paint consistently, only totaling 7 threes in the game but making a total of 46 field goals by shooting 59.7% from the field. 13 steals in the game were a big part of the story as the Tigers' defense was too much for Stanton to handle.
Yasukochi had the team high with 5 assists and Khailand Anderson-Strawder filled up the stat sheet by shooting 7-10 from the field for 14 points to go along with 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks.
The Tigers are now 1-0 on the year and will next take the court at Rush Gym on Wednesday, November 13th at 7pm against the Ottawa University Arizona Spirit.
