Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

CLAREMONT, Calif. – The Whittier College women's basketball team put together an impressive game against the top SCIAC ranked Athenas of Claremont-M-S Wednesday evening, but a physical second half would secure the victory for CMS 62-48 as they remain undefeated in conference play. 

Whittier (5-7, 1-3 SCIAC) came out matching the Athenas basket for basket scoring 28 in the first half led by Priscilla Rodriguez (East Los Angeles, Calif.) who totaled eight of her 10 points to keep the Purple & Gold within striking distance at 30-28 at the break.

The Poets trailed early 9-2 but came back to take their first lead of the game 11-10 following back to back three pointers from Dannika Navales-Lugtu (San Francisco, Calif.) and Rodriguez.  An ensuing 6-0 run would give CMS back the lead but the Poets would respond with their own spurt going back in front 17-16. 

The game would go back and forth with WC reclaiming the lead one more time 28-25 with 1:42 to play in the half following lay-ins by Ana Youngblood (Berkeley, Calif.) and a tre from Rodriguez but that would be the last lead they would have as the Athena's would rally to score the final five points in a minute to take the lead into the break. 

In the second half the Poets would tie things up on three different occasions with the last coming at 41-41 with 11:56 to play but that's as close as they would get as they would see CMS put together an ensuing 8-0 run that helped propel them to the 14 point victory. 

Whittier capitalized off of the 24 turnovers by CMS with 19 points, and had 12 second chance points, but managed to shoot a mere 29.7% from the field, 21.1% from deep, and 35.3% from the free throw line.

Youngblood led the Poet offense with a double double of 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting and 12 boards and Alexander would chip in with six points and would haul in six boards. 

Whittier returns home this Saturday, January 17 as they host Pomona-Pitzer beginning at 5:00pm.