BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (Dec. 21, 2023) – The Whittier College women's basketball team brought its early season momentum into a midseason exhibition game at California State University Bakersfield just days before the holiday weekend. The Poets ultimately gave a great account of themselves, coming up short to the Roadrunners, 60-52.
Box Score
Whittier outscored Bakersfield in two quarters, and maintained a 10-point positive margin over the game's final three quarters. The Poets did have to endure a first-quarter onslaught from the Roadrunners, but rebounded well and showed they could compete with Division I athletes. Whittier maintained its normal rotation, and were generally unphased by most of what would be thrown at them. They held the home team to just under 32 percent shooting, which would rank among the team's top defensive performances to date in the 2023-24 season.
The Purple & Gold leaned on the scoring of talented junior guard
Rhe Nae Leach (Riverside, Calif. / John W. North) to will them back into the game. Leach finished with 17 points and double-doubled with 12 rebounds, four of which came on the offensive end. Leach was not the only player to to hit double-figure rebounds (or points) against the Division I foe, however. Senior forward
Lainie James (La Habra, Calif. / Sonora / Concordia University Irvine) used her outside shooting to reach 11 points on the night, and junior forward
Lulu Salloom (Santa Clarita, Calif. / Saugus / College of the Canyons) picked up 12 rebounds of her own. Perhaps more of note, seven different Poets registered points on the night for just the second time this season (Whittier had eight scorers at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges), and Whittier finished the game having outrebounded Bakersfield by a narrow margin of 44-43.
From the third quarter on, the Poets found an offensive groove, competed better, and began to show they belong on the same floor as a Division I program. Whittier's momentum only grew as the game wore on, with James connecting on one of her three triples at the 5:26 mark to put her team within six points. Two more free throws from junior guard
Abby Pagila (Oakland, Calif. / Bishop O'Dowd) twice got the Poets within five, but the Roadrunners were ultimately able to hang on and preserve the win. Senior center
Bella Robles (Lompoc, Calif. / Lompoc) also had a notable night with seven points and four rebounds on a perfect night of shooting.
Head Coach
Roy Dow and the Poets will enjoy the holiday weekend before returning to action on Friday, Dec. 29, when they host Saint Joseph's College of Maine at noon.
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