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Los Angeles, CA— Oxy women's basketball played host to the CMS Athenas in a SCIAC matchup on Wednesday night. 

The first quarter of the game was closely contested as there were 6 lead changes and 1 tie in the first 3 minutes of play. The Tigers found themselves up by 4 points by a score of 12-8 after made layups from Ainsley Shelsta and Gabriela Etopio. 

Paige Yasukochi went on a personal 5-0 offensive run by making a 3-pointer and a jumper to get Oxy's lead up to 19-11 with 2:41 to play in the first quarter. Micah Elegores got in on the scoring for Oxy right before the quarter closed by making a nice jumper and Oxy took a 21-15 lead into the second quarter. 

Shelsta took over for Oxy in the second quarter, scoring the teams first 8 points, but CMS was responding on offense and cutting into the Tiger lead. The Athenas were able to get the lead down to 3 points by making a 3-pointer after Toni Thompson had knocked down a jumper and the Oxy lead was 36-33 heading into halftime. 

The Tigers came out firing on all cylinders to start the third quarter with a quick 8-0 run on offense in the first 2 minutes of play. CMS stopped the run with a 3-point play but Thompson got to the free throw line for Oxy and converted both attempts to get Oxy's lead back up to 10 points. After Thompson made a jump shot, CMS went on a small 5-0 run to get the lead down to 7 points. 

After a Thompson layup had the lead back up to 10 points with 2 minutes to play in the quarter, the Athenas went on another 5-0 run to get the score 51-46 in favor of Oxy heading into the fourth and final quarter. 

Oxy kept their lead at 6 to 8 points for the first 5 minutes of play in the fourth quarter. Another quick 5-0 strike from the Athenas had the Oxy lead at 58-55 but Toni Thompson made a layup for Oxy quickly on the other end to push the lead back to 5 points. 

Thompson then worked her way back to the free throw line and made both free throws to make the score 62-55 Tigers with two minutes to play. Oxy was converting at the stripe to keep the Athenas at bay, but after a CMS 4-point play with 11 seconds left in the game the Tiger lead was only 68-67. 

CMS was forced to foul Thompson after the inbound and she knocked down two clutch free throws to extend the lead to 70-67 for the Tigers. Oxy's Ainsley Shelsta would tip the CMS inbound pass to disrupt the play before the Athenas would miss what would've been the game tying 3-pointer. 

Oxy secured the 70-67 win to improve to 9-3 in SCIAC play and keep pace with La Verne who defeated Cal Lu to also improve to 9-3. Both teams currently hold a tie in the 1st place spot in the SCIAC with Whittier and CLU close behind at 8-3.

Toni Thompson finished with an impressive 34 points, 17 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals in the game. Ainsley Shelsta scored 17 points while also grabbing 7 rebounds for the Tigers. Gabriela Etopio scored 7 points and had 4 rebounds and 2 assists. 

Michelle Lagunas-Monroy collected 7 rebounds off the bench and was a rim protector with 2 blocks in the game. Dominique Cabading was one step ahead of the Poet offense, collecting 3 steals.

Oxy will look to defeat the Poets on their home court when they travel to Whittier for a SCIAC matchup on Saturday, February 3rd at 4pm.