Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College women's basketball team turned the ball over 32 times that proved costly en route to an 81-60 loss to the Panthers of Chapman University Thursday evening in the Graham Athletic Center.

Whittier now drops to 2-5, 1-2 SCIAC, while Chapman remains in the top four in the SCIAC standings at 6-1, 2-1 SCIAC. 

Sandra Gao from Chapman led all scorers pouring in 25 points on 8-14 shooting to go with seven boards, while sophomore Dannika Navales-Lugtu again paced the Purple & Gold with a double digit effort with 20 points on 4-10 shooting, while going 11-12 from the charity stripe. 

Chapman opened up the contest with a 14-3 run but saw Whittier go on a 12-4 run of their own to pull within four at 21-17.  The black and maroon tried to pull away but Whittier continued to pour on the offense thanks to a three point basket and two free throws from Navales-Lugtu. 

Despite a strong effort by the Poets in the final 4:47 to keep the game close it wasn't enough to stop a 13-3 spurt by the Chapman offense that brought them into the half up by seventeen 46-29. 

Coming out of the break, Whittier added eight points quickly to pull within eleven behind a pair of free throws from Navales-Lugtu, a lay in by Danielle Quinones, and two jumpers from Danielle Hays and Ashley Genie but in a seven point swing Chapman went back up by seventeen after Gao added a layup and a free throw, which was followed by a technical foul on Alex Coon that forced her out of the game with her fifth personal.

With the Poets top inside presence on the bench, Whittier managed to tack on five unanswered but again Chapman responded with a 14-4 run that put the Panthers up by 22 with 9:22 to play.  Down the stretch Whittier managed to pull off one more run, but it wasn't enough as CU closed out the game behind back to back layups from Nicole Moy. 

Chapman held the advantage on the glass at 39-33, but the difference in the game was points off turnovers and second chance points, which the Panthers held 29-14 and 21-14, each respectively. 

Maria Montero sparked the Poet offense off the bench chipping in with eight points in 27 minutes of action helping Whittier hold a one point advantage on bench points 20-19. 

Chapman also saw Kimi Takaoka and Andrea Villanueva add double digit finishes with 19 and 11 points, each respectively, while Takaoka hauled in seven boards.

Whittier finishes the week with a non-conference match-up with UC Santa Cruz tomorrow, Saturday, December 8 with tip-off set for 2:00pm.