The Whittier College Women's Basketball Team has begun the season off with stunning performances and yet again put on a show tonight against the University of Redlands Bulldogs at the Graham Athletic Center winning 67-53.  The Poets now have run their overall record to 10-4 and 2-1 in conference play.

The Bulldogs were entering the game on a 4-game winning streak and coming off big wins over Occidental and Claremont-Mudd in Conference play.  But the Poets were determined and hungry to get yet another conference win.  With the help of tremendous defensive play and a good offensive run in the second half, the Poets were able to clinch the victory.

The Poets began the game off slowly shooting 29% from the field on 10-35 shooting, while the Bulldogs came out shooting 37% on 10-27 shooting.  Both teams were unable to find the basket in the first half and with stellar defensive performances, the Bulldogs were only able to go into the half with a 26-22 advantage. 

The second half got underway and with it came scoring run after scoring run for the Poets who put up 45 second half points compared to the Bulldogs 27.  The Poets were able to get double digit scoring efforts from Kourtney Zilbert (15 pts./9 boards), Tina Merlino (14 pts./9 boards), Keimi Lew (15 pts./3 steals), and Morgan Sabala (13 pts./ 3 steals) and were able to shoot 46% from the field. 

The Poets down the stretch went to Freshman Keimi Lew who started for the injured Stephanie Anderson and kept the game out of reach for the bulldogs knocking down 7-10 free throws (6 of which came in the second half). 

The Bulldogs were unable to match up with the hot shooting/defensive minded Poets but got strong scoring efforts from Shada Sadeghi (8 pts/ 15 boards), Mariah Barbetti-Cort (12 pts./12 boards), and Meghan Yetman (10 pts./ 7 boards).

The Poets are in action this coming Saturday, January 17, 2009 as they travel to CalTech to take on the Beavers with tip-off being scheduled for 5:00pm with the Men's Poet Basketball Game immediately following.