Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

REDLANDS, Calif. – The Whittier College Women's Basketball team competed Saturday night but came up short in a 56-50 loss to the University of Redlands.

Whittier has now lost two Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) games in a row as they now drop to 2-5, 1-2 SCIAC.

The game included six ties and five lead changes, with the difference coming down to free-throws where the Purple & Gold were a mere 10-17 (59%), while Redlands was 16-22 (73%).

The Poets showed determination late in the fourth quarter tying things up at 50-apiece with a little over five minutes to play in the fourth but their offense would stall soon after as UR would go on a 6-0 run to close out the game. 

Mia Maglinte (Roseville, Calif.) got the Poet offense going early picking up a steal and converting a layup in the first :12 seconds.  Redlands would come back with a 7-2 run over the next three minutes but again WC would respond with Daisy Cardenas (Santa Clarita, Calif.) knocking down a triple followed by layups from Emilee Dy (Chino Hills, Calif.) and Emily Guerena (Montebello, Calif.) moving the score to 14-9.

Joy Adlao would stop the run with a tre to pull UR within two but as time expired in the first quarter, freshman Kayli Schwenke (Torrance, Calif.) would knock down a jumper putting the Bulldogs in a four-point hole.

The Poets didn't have an answer for Reyna Ta'amu in the second quarter who added the first six points for Redlands.  But they still continued to pour it on, on the offensive end with Maglinte knocking down back-to-back-to-back triples, while Teani White (Burbank, Calif.) and Dy added layups over the final two minutes giving WC a slight 34-32 advantage at intermission.

It was a big third quarter for the Bulldogs outscoring the Purple & Gold 16-8, which proved costly.  They used an 11-0 run early to go on top 45-36 swinging the momentum and forcing the Poets to battle back.  Over the final three minutes of the frame though Whittier strung together five free-throws and outscored UR 5-2 to pull within six.

After a couple free throws by Cassandra Lacey to jump-start the final 10:00 minutes the Poets saw Guerena add a couple of her own along with a jumper in the paint, which sparked an 8-0 run, which included a Cali Cubel jumper and a Maglinte layin. 

This deadlocked the game at 50-50 with 5:50 to play and after that the Poets went ice-cold going 0-8 allowing UR to escape with the six-point victory.

Whittier shot 33% (18-55) from the field and 18% (4-22) from deep.  They were outrebounded 44-33 but earned 28 points off turnovers. 

Maglinte led the Poets with 15 points and four rebounds, while picking up three steals.  Guerena came off the bench and added 11 points and four boards in 15 minutes of action and Cubel chipped in with seven points, five boards and two assists.                

Whittier remains in conference play this Friday, December 15 as they travel to Pasadena, Calif. to take on Caltech with game time set for 7:00pm.