Box Score Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
ORANGE, Calif. – The Whittier College Women's Basketball team got one step closer to earning a berth into the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Tournament Saturday by sweeping Chapman University on the season 65-48 on the road.
The Purple & Gold end their two-game losing skid and improve to 15-8, 9-4 SCIAC, still holding onto the No. 2 slot within the conference standings.
The regular season is coming to a close and the Poets still have three games left on the schedule with no lock onto a SCIAC Tournament berth. But Saturday they pulled off the program's first season sweep over Chapman University. Whittier was forced to play catch-up against the Panthers using a 34-8 second half run to spoil the CU Senior Night.
Chapman jumped out in front 13-5 before the Poets went on a 6-0 run with back to back layups from Cali Cubel (Oceanside, Calif.) and Emily Guerena (Montebello, Calif.) capped off with a jumper from Allison Lou (Cerritos, Calif.). This got Whittier within two, but a Marissa Dunn triple with :19 seconds to go in the frame would push the Chapman lead back to five.
The lead extended to 14 on a couple of occasions in the 2nd Quarter for the Panthers as they would take a 31-20 lead into the break. But after intermission the wheels fell off for CU with WC outscoring the Panthers 45-17 over the final 20:00 minutes, while holding them to just 19.3% shooting as they would run away with the victory.
Shaeleigh Wright (Long Beach, Calif.) had the game of her career tossing in a double double of 17-points and 10 rebounds, but did it defensively being tasked with covering Lucy Criswell, the Panthers leading scorer. Wright held the senior to just two points, which came on two free throws. Criswell finished 0-for-9 from the field.
Teani White (Burbank, Calif.) put up a game high 24 points on 7-of-12 shooting to go with seven rebounds, two assists and two steals. Guerena off the bench registered nine points with four boards and two blocks and Daisy Cardenas (Santa Clarita, Calif.) put up a pair of triples finishing with six points.
Whittier shot 42% from the field and 25% from three-point territory. They were outrebounded 39-35 but forced 18 CU turnovers and totaled 21 points off of them. They also added 36 points in the paint and 11 assists as a team.
Whittier has a bye this Wednesday but will return to competition this Saturday, February 15 when they host Occidental College beginning at 4:00pm.
