WHITTIER, Calif. (Jan. 15, 2023) – A collaborative, team effort saw the Whittier College women's basketball team overcome adversity on Monday night to defeat Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, 55-48, to complete the season sweep of the Athenas.
In the early going, the Poets dominated the Athenas much like how they did in Claremont when the two teams met earlier in the season. However, an injury that forced junior guard and All-American candidate Rhe Nae Leach (Riverside, Calif. / John W. North) out of the game forced the remainder of the squad to come together in order to finish the game and secure the victory. The Poets still led wire-to-wire against the Athenas with a handful of players stepping up Leach's absence. After all, the first-place Poets have played few minutes without the star guard the season. Leach exited the game with four points in 12 minutes, but her four steals to that point would have had her on pace for an unorthodox two-way double-double.
Nevertheless, the Poets pressed on, eventually settling into a rhythm with Leach out of the lineup. Multiple players stepped up in different ways, but regardless of individual contributions, the Poets collectively maintained excellent perimeter defense against a team that can be reliant on the long ball. CMS shot just 4-for-25 from deep, paving the way for the Poets outpoint them the rest of the way. Meanwhile, Whittier's own perimeter shooting gave they team a needed shot in the arm offensively. Whittier leaned on the deep shooting from senior guard Citlalli Gurrola (San Diego, Calif. / Mount Miguel / Miles CC | UNLV), who connected on four three-pointers en route to leading the Purple & Gold in scoring for the first time this year with 14 points. The senior's deep ball has been a supplemental weapon for the Poets all season, and with Leach out of the lineup, Gurrola's shooting came into even greater focus.
Senior Lainie James (La Habra, Calif. / Sonora / Concordia University Irvine) also contributed in this department with a trio of three-pointers, but overcome a sluggish offensive start by finding otherwise to contributed. The star forward pulled down seven defensive rebounds, and got her teammates involved early and often with a season-high seven assists, putting her just three assists and three rebounds off of achieving a rare triple-double. Meanwhile, junior forward Lulu Salloom Santa Clarita, Calif. / Saugus / College of the Canyons) was her usual aggressive self in the paint, pacing the Poets with 14 of her team's 38 rebounds on the night while scoring 13 points on five field goals. The junior also picked up the slack defensively in Leach's absence with three steals and one block.
What appeared in the game's early stages to be a routine Whittier victory turned into a 40-minute grind, but the Poets got the job done by limiting the potency of any run the Athenas could muster while leaning on its bench to pick perform in key minutes down the stretch. Seniors Bella Robles (Lompoc, Calif. / Lompoc) and Natalia Williams (Scottsdale, Ariz. / Chaparral), along with freshman Yaneli Rosales (San Diego, Calif. / Mount Miguel), all saw at least 13 minutes of action on Monday night with Rosales leading the group with five points off the bench. The closest CMS managed to get was within four points of Whittier in the second quarter, but a pair of huge fourth-quarter bombs from James, along with some timely free throw shooting from the likes of Rosales, Salloom, and freshman guard Abby Pagila (Oakland, Calif. / Bishop O'Dowd) ensured a Poets victory in the end.
Head Coach Roy Dow and the Poets will continue their pursuit of the SCIAC regular season title when they travel to California Lutheran University for the first time this year on Wednesday, Jan. 17 for a 7 p.m. game.
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