Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

ORANGE, Calif. – The Whittier College women's basketball team runs their losing skid to seven games Saturday evening after dropping an 81-55 decision to the Panthers of Chapman University at the Hutton Sports Center.   

Whittier now drops to 5-18, 2-12 SCIAC, while Chapman improves to 19-5, 11-4 SCIAC. 

The Poets who continue to seek that spark here in February saw Chapman take a 48-23 lead into the half after shooting an astounding 62% from the field.  Early in the contest, the Panthers used a 13-0 run in just 2:41 that paced Chapman to a 19-4 advantage in the early stages. 

Whittier attempted to get back into the game thanks to seven points and a perfect 3-3 from the field from Casceal Swaggard but Chapman would go on to close out the half on a 12-2 run.

Despite facing a large deficit coming out  of the break, the Purple & Gold were able to hold Chapman to 36% shooting and were only outscored by one 33-32 in the second stanza.  But the large deficit at the half was too much to overcome as Chapman at one point raced out to a 32 point lead.  Whittier was able to slow down the Chapman offensive attack late in the second period by taking advantage of 14 second chance points, which included eight from senior Alex Coon, who tallied 10 of her team high 15 points in the second half.   

In the end the deficit was too much to overcome as Chapman cruised to the 26 point victory. 

The Poets saw Swaggard finish with 13 points, four rebounds, and three blocked shots, while Brenda Kramer tallied 12 points on 6-13 shooting to go with five boards.

For Chapman, Kimi Takaoka led all scorers adding a game high 24 points on 8-12 shooting, while Sandra Gao and Emily McCoy finished with 15 and 10 points, each respectively.  

Whittier looks to return to the Graham Athletic Center this week in preparation for PAC the GAC, which is set to take place this Saturday, February 16 against Caltech with gametime set for 5:00pm.