Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College women's basketball team earned a big 71-61 victory over the Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer Saturday night using a big second half  where they tossed in 41 points en route to winning their sixth victory on the season.

The Poets were led by junior guard Priscilla Rodriguez (East Los Angeles, Calif.) who tossed in a team high 17 points to go with two rebounds, seven assists, and two steals that helped moved Whittier to 6-7, 2-3 SCIAC. 

Pomona-Pitzer (2-12, 1-4 SCIAC) hung around throughout erasing an early 10-4 deficit to take a 31-29 lead into the break.  But the Poets came out firing on all cylinders in the second half storming out in front 58-42 thanks to Dannika Navales-Lugtu (San Francisco, Calif.) who sparked an early 14-5 run with back to back three pointers to open up the stanza. 

The Sagehens fought though to pull within four on two different occasions with the first coming with 3:18 to play when Basha Brulee-Wills put in two of her game high 19 points to move the score to 62-58, that capped off a 12-2 run by PP. 

Rodriguez stopped the run for the Poets with a layup but Pomona-Pitzer answered again this time from Kacie Hitomi who added a jumper to move the deficit back to four with 2:06 to play.  But that's as close as they would get as the Poets would shoot 7-8 from the charity stripe down the stretch that sealed the home victory.

Navales-Lugtu was the only other Poet in double figures with 13 on 3-of-9 shooting, while Erica Houston (Stockton, Calif.) came off the bench to provide support on the boards picking up a team high 11 rebounds and seven points.  Kamila Auls (Long Beach, Calif.) provided a spark as well off the bench with four steals and seven points in 19 minutes of action. 

Whittier now goes on the road this Monday, January 19 as they travel to Redlands to take on the Bulldogs beginning at 7:30pm.