WBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[OxyBob]

Eyewitness report from Eagle Rock:

Whittier 78, Oxy 72

Oxy let one get away at home. The Tigers led 70-64 with 3:30 to go, but Whittier scored 11 straight to lead 75-70, and the Poets held on for the win.

OC: Makenzie Brandon 19 pts and 8 rebs, Dior Williams 11, Stephanie 10 pts and 12 rebs, Britinee Yasukochi 10
WC: Brittany Aranda 18, Morgan Sabala 17, Keimi Lew 14, Tina Merlino 12 pts and 11 rebs

Oxy is 8-4, 1-1 SCIAC. The Tigers play Claremont on Thursday and are @ Cal Lutheran on Saturday. Whittier is 9-4, 2-0. The Poets are @ Pomona on Thursday and home to La Verne on Saturday.

OxyBob

[WestCoastFan]

Pomona-Pitzer with an overtime win versus Whittier.

La Verne gives CLU a game, but Cal Lutheran has too much depth.

[OxyBob]

Eyewitness report from Thousand Oaks:

Oxy 72, Cal Lutheran 69

Oxy blew a 13-point second half lead, but clutch shooting by Gillian Nugent led Oxy to victory.

The Tigers led 37-31 at halftime, and built their lead to 50-37 at 15:20. CLU then outscored Oxy 27-9 and the Regals led 64-59 at 4:40. Nugent then scored 8 straight on a 3-ball, another 3-pointer, and then a jumper to give Oxy the lead back for good at 67-64. The Tigers made their FTs down the stretch and came away with the win.

Nugent finished with 18, Laura Mohler had 16, Stephanie Babij had 13 pts and 12 rebs, and Dior Williams scored 11.

For CLU,  Erica Whitley scored 15, Starla Wright had 14, and Brianna Parker had 10.

Oxy and CLU are both 10-4, 3-1 SCIAC.

OxyBob

[OxyBob]

From the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin:

The University of Redlands women will host Cal Lutheran on Saturday at 5 p.m. at Currier Gymnasium. The Bulldogs (12-3, 4-0) are first in the SCIAC while the Regals (10-4, 3-1) are in a three-way tie for second.

It looked like that game would be between teams tied for first place but Cal Lutheran was beaten on Saturday by defending champion Occidental, which doesn't appear ready to surrender the title.

Both teams have another game earlier in the week, though. Redlands will host Whittier and Cal Lutheran is home to Pomona-Pitzer. Both games are on Thursday.

OxyBob

[WestCoastFan]

In D3 (women's) basketball, I assume it's the official scorekeeper who is responsible for keeping track of and reporting all stats to the conference -- including making the call, for example, whether a pass constitutes an assist or whether a rebound is made by an individual or the team. Out of curiosity, I'd be interested to know if official scorekeepers are assigned to games by the conference or by the home team. Might anyone know?

[OxyBob]

Eyewitness report from La Verne:

Oxy 62, La Verne 58

Oxy led 32-31 at the half, scored 8 straight to start the second half, led the rest of the way, and withstood a couple of ULV rallies to get the win.

OC: Makenzie Brandon 20, Stephanie Babij 16 pts, 13 rebs, 40 min
ULV: Ashley Paul 19, Amanda Copas 14, Clarissa Holz 14 pts, 10 rebs, 40 min

Oxy is 13-3, 5-1 SCIAC, La Verne is 8-9, 1-5. Oxy is in a 3-way tie for first in the SCIAC with Cal Lutheran (12-4, 5-1) and Redlands (13-4, 5-1). The Tigers are @ UR on Thursday.

In D3 (women's) basketball, I assume it's the official scorekeeper who is responsible for keeping track of and reporting all stats to the conference -- including making the call, for example, whether a pass constitutes an assist or whether a rebound is made by an individual or the team.

According to the NCAA, the official duties of the scorer are to keep track of the names and uniform numbers of the players, record field goals made and free throws made and missed, keep a running summary of points scored, record personal and technical fouls called on players and coaches, notify the refs when a player has received her 5th personal foul and when the 7th and 10th team fouls have been committed, and record the number of timeouts and notify the refs when a team has taken its last TO.

OxyBob

[OxyBob]

Oxy 64, Redlands 63

In the second half Oxy led 52-41 at 12:55, but Redlands tied the game 62-all on Courtney Carroll's jumper with 1:37 to go, and took the lead 63-62 on a FT by Mariah Barbetti-Cort with 46 seconds left. After a missed shot by Oxy, Carroll was fouled with 10 seconds left but missed both FTs. Oxy called timeout with 3 seconds left. The ball went in to Stephanie Babij, who was fouled with 1.4 seconds to go. Babij hit both FTs, and UR's desperation heave was no good.

For Oxy, Stephanie Babij scored 30 (12-for-15 FGs) and had 7 rebounds and 3 steals. Makenzie Brandon had 11, and Dior Williams scored 7 and had 10 rebounds.

For Redlands, Courtney Carroll had 24 pts and 8 rebs, and Meghan Yetman scored 14.

With the win Oxy is 14-4, 6-1 SCIAC, and tied for first with Cal Lutheran (13-4, 6-1). Redlands is 13-5, 5-2. Saturday night Oxy is home to Pomona (5-11, 1-6), while Redlands hosts La Verne (9-9, 2-5).

OxyBob

[OxyBob]

The Caltech women's team doesn't get much notice, but on Jan. 23 the Techers got their first-ever SCIAC road win, a 76-61 win over Pomona:

It was a big night for the Beavers as they did what no other Caltech women's basketball team have accomplished...a SCIAC win on the road. And big it was. In a 15-point margin, Caltech dealt Pomona Pitzer a loss and for the second time made the Sagehens the subject of a Tech first. Back in January of 2007 Caltech got its first SCIAC win on their home court against the Sagehens.

Tonight's schedule, all games 5:00 p.m.:

La Verne (9-9, 2-5 SCIAC) @ Redlands (13-5, 5-2)
Cal Lutheran (13-4, 6-1) @ Claremont (12-6, 3-4)
Caltech (5-13, 1-6) @ Whittier (11-7, 4-3)
Pomona (5-11, 1-6) @ Oxy (14-4, 6-1)

No class, disrespectful remark by George Fox head coach Scott Rueck about Cal Lutheran in the D3hoops "Around the Nation" column:

Scott Rueck has something of a basketball dynasty brewing in Newberg, Ore. A year ago, his George Fox women were on top of the world, making the trip to Holland and winning the program's first national championship; now, he's lost arguably his two best players from last spring's title-winner, and he's still got his Bruins right there among the nation's elite.
...

"We felt that way to start the year, kind of," Rueck admitted. "I don't know -- it was an interesting start to our season. We weren't playing great at first, and we had some players playing, I believe, below their potential. But once Christmas hit, we had had the loss to Cal Lutheran, which I thought wasn't a very good loss, and then another [to Division II Lewis-Clark State] against what I thought was a very good team -- and those were losses that refocused us, I thought.

Sore loser.

OxyBob

[OxyBob]

Eyewitness report from Eagle Rock:

Oxy 72, Pomona 44

Oxy won its 7th straight with an easy win over Pomona. The Tigers led 7-6 at 13:15. Seven minutes later it was 32-6, and it went downhill from there for the Sagehens.

Oxy played 13 and 12 of them scored. Samantha Rossi led the way with 11. Asha Gipson scored 10 for Pomona.

Oxy is 15-4, 7-1 SCIAC. The Tigers are at Whittier (12-7, 5-3) on Thursday. The Poets inflicted Oxy's only conference loss on Jan. 9. Oxy remains tied for first with Cal Lutheran (14-4, 7-1), with Redlands (14-5, 6-2) right on their heels. Pomona is 5-12, 1-7. The Sagehens host La Verne (9-10, 2-6) on Thursday.

OxyBob

[OxyBob]

Eyewitness report from Claremont:

Oxy 76, Claremont 73 OT

Oxy escaped with an overtime win over Claremont.

For Oxy, Stephanie Babij scored 32 points and had 12 rebounds, and Makenzie Brandon and Dior Williams each had 14.

For CMS, Cameron Hanson had 14, Camille Sheffield and Sarah Beattie each scored 13, and Aria Krumwiede had 11.

Oxy is 17-4, 9-1 SCIAC, and is in a first place tie with Cal Lutheran (17-4, 9-1). The Tigers and the Regals will battle it out at Oxy this Thursday. Oxy won their first meeting 72-69.

OxyBob

[OxyBob]

Oxy 60, Cal Lutheran 55

Oxy took over sole possession of first place with a 60-55 win over Cal Lutheran. The game was close throughout. In the first half, Oxy led 23-15 at 9:25, but CLU came back and led 29-28. Makenzie Brandon's layup gave Oxy a 30-29 halftime lead. In the second half, the game was tied 51-all at 2:55. The Tigers then scored 7 straight on Dior Williams's 3-ball and 4 straight FTs by Williams and Britinee Yasukochi, and led 58-51 with 23 seconds left. After CLU's Meaghan Goodenough made a layup, the Regals got a steal and Donielle Griggs hit a jumper to cut the lead to 58-55 with 13 seconds to go. Yasukochi hit 2 more FTs to seal the Oxy victory.

For Oxy, Makenzie Brandon had 16, Dior Williams scored 12, and Gillian Nugent had 11. CLU held Stephanie Babij to 4 points, far under her season average of 14.3.

For Cal Lutheran, Brianna Parker scored 14, Erica Whitley had 11, and Starla Wright scored 12.

Oxy is now 18-4 overall, 10-1 SCIAC, and has won 10 straight. The Tigers play @ Caltech (5-17, 1-10) on Saturday. Cal Lutheran is 17-5, 9-2 and fell into a second place tie with Redlands, also 17-5, 9-2. On Thursday CLU is @ Pomona (5-15, 1-10), while Redlands is home to 4th place Whittier (13-9, 6-5).

OxyBob

[BruinFan]

OxyBob,

I'm surprised you haven't posted an account yet of Occidental's win over Cal Lutheran. Are you working on it?

Hey, I stand corrected as you just posted the report. I knew we wouldn't have to wait too much longer.

[WestCoastFan]

OxyBob,

While I'm primarily a Claremont booster, I love Oxy's heart. I was hoping the Athenas could take a game or two from the Tigers this year but, alas, it wasn't meant to be.

With the regular season heading into its final weeks, I know Occidental's upperclassmen have been logging some monster minutes. How's the team's mindset with the conference playoffs in sight?

In closing, great post about Caltech. Those ladies COMPETE every time they take the floor.

[WestCoastFan]

2/13 Occidental spreads the minutes around as it defeats Caltech

Biggest games leading up to the conference playoffs:

2/18 Redlands at Cal Lutheran
        Claremont at Whittier

2/20 Redlands at Occidental
        Cal Lutheran at Whittier

Occidental, Cal Lutheran, and Redlands have earned playoff spots and are jockeying for position. Whittier is in the driver's seat for the fourth and final playoff spot.

[OxyBob]

Occidental, Cal Lutheran, and Redlands have earned playoff spots and are jockeying for position. Whittier is in the driver's seat for the fourth and final playoff spot.

Oxy will clinch a share of its third straight regular season conference title with a win over La Verne on Thursday. Cal Lutheran will clinch 2nd place with a win over Redlands. Whittier will clinch 4th place with a win over Claremont.

OxyBob