Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier women's basketball team was held to a season-low 40 points on Thursday evening as Cal Lutheran handed the Poets their second straight SCIAC loss, 64-40, at the Graham Athletics Center.

The Regals (10-7, 4-2 SCIAC) outrebounded Whittier 43-30 and had three players finish in double figures en route to the 24-point win.

Starla Wright scored with a game-high 18 points, Maya Sotelo added 11 and Channing Fleischmann poured in 10 for the Regals. The Poets were led by Kourtney Zilbert and Marissa Bruce who scored nine and eight points each, respectively, in the loss.

Whittier (9-8, 3-3 SCIAC) jumped out to an early 4-0 lead just 1:05 into the game and forced the Regals to burn an early timeout. Cal Lutheran came out of the break and responded with a 15-1 run over the next six minutes to take a 15-5 lead at the 12:44 mark.

The Poets pulled with three points at 17-14 but the Regals ended the half on a 22-7 run to take a 39-21 lead into the intermission.

Whittier shot just 28 percent from the floor through the first 20 minutes but the biggest difference came from the bench. The Poets scored just five bench points while the Regals had 23.

Statistically the Poets shot 10 percentage points higher (8-of-21) in the second half but attempted eight few shots. The Regals outscored the Poets 25-19 in the second half.

Zilbert grabbed five rebounds and had three assists and three assists.

Alex Coon pulled in five rebounds and Essence Scott had four boards off the bench.

The Poets will look to get back in the win column on Saturday evening as they host Caltech at 5 pm.