Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. – In a game that featured an up tempo style, a combined 70 turnovers and 59 fouls called, the Whittier College women's basketball team was unable to come away with the victory Saturday night as they fell 86-76 to Chapman University in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) opener.

Whittier now drops to 4-5, 0-1 SCIAC, while Chapman moves to 3-6, 1-0 SCIAC.

From the opening whistle Chapman made its presence felt with a full court press that induced 21 first half turnovers that led to a 48-28 lead at the break.  Whittier would comeback however in the second outscoring the Panthers 48-38 led by Priscilla Rodriguez (East Los Angeles, Calif.) who put in 10 of her game high 18 points.  She was joined by Deja Johnson-Ford (Berkeley, Calif.) who knocked down three consecutive triples midway through the second that kept the Poets within striking distance.

Rodriguez continued to pace the Poets later in the second half as she proved to be a menace at the top for the CU guards finishing with four steals on the evening, three assists and a block and freshman Amia Thrash (Eastvale, Calif.) would put the finishing touches on the comeback scoring seven of the final 15 points that pulled WC within ten.

In the statistical categories the game went back and forth with the Poets falling in the rebounding category 45-36, and in the paint 38-30.  But they would come out strong winning the points off turnovers 29-27 and would outshoot Chapman 46.9%-42.3% from the field. 

Ana Youngblood (Berkley, Calif.) missed out on a double double finishing with 14 points and nine boards, while Erica Houston (Stockton, Calif.) finished with 10 rebounds and four points off the bench.  Kamila Auls (Long Beach, Calif.) found herself playing quality minutes putting together her best performance of the season picking up a career high six steals, eight points, two assists, and three rebounds.

For Chapman, three players found themselves in double figures led by Megan Charles off the bench who had 14 on 5-of-9 shooting.  She was joined by Andrea Villanueva and Natalia Ebrahimian who each had 13 points respectively, while Ivory Hallstein picked up 11 rebounds and three steals.    

Whittier returns to Dave Jacobs Court this Wednesday, January 7 as they host Caltech beginning at 7:30pm.