Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
LOS ANGELES - The Whittier College women's
basketball team erased a six-point Occidental lead with 3:31 left
to play in the game to down the defending Southern California
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champions, 78-72, on Saturday
evening at Rush Gymnasium.
The Poets (9-4, 2-0 SCIAC) outscored the Tigers (8-4, 1-1 SCIAC)
17-6 over the final five minutes to earn the victory.
Whittier trailed 70-64 but used clutch foul shooting by
Kourtney Zilbert and Brittany
Aranda and two jumpers from Tina Merlino
to claim the lead at 71-70 with 1:39 remaining on the clock.
Morgan Sabala gave the purple and gold a
three-point cushion on Whittier's ensuing possession and later
stretched the Poets' lead to 75-70 with 35 ticks left in the game.
The Tigers pulled within three points but Keimi
Lew iced the game by hitting 3-of-4 foul shots in the
final 27 seconds en route to the win.
"This was a great team effort," said head coach Brad
Durchslag. "Before the game we said we had to believe and
trust each other and we did that tonight."
This was the first win for Durchslag over Whittier's SCIAC
rival. Last season the Tigers defeated the Poets twice in the
regular season and added a win in the SCIAC Postseason Tournament.
Whittier had four players reach double figures led by Aranda who
had a team-high 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting. Aranda added four
assists, three rebounds and one steal.
Sabala scored 17 points, Lew finished with 14 points and four
assists and Merlino scored 12 points with 11 rebounds in the win.
Statistically the game was very evenly played. Both teams shot
an identical 41.2 percent from the field and had 21 assists. It was
the Tigers who held a slight lead in rebounding (45-41) but
Whittier's 19-2 advantage in points off turnovers proved to be the
difference.
The game had a total of eight lead changes and was tied six
times.
Whittier led 38-36 at the half and held as large as a 12-point
lead in the first 20 minutes.
The Poets return to action on Thursday, January 14, as they hit
the road to face Pomona-Pitzer at 7:30 pm.
