Box Score CLAREMONT, CA. – The Pomona-Pitzer Women's Basketball team ended their regular season with a 60-53 win over Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) opponent Occidental on Saturday night at Voelkel Gymnasium.
With the win, the Sagehens end the regular season at 15-10 overall and 10-6 in SCIAC play. The Sagehens have also locked up the No. 4 seed in the upcoming SCIAC Postseason Tournament.
The Sagehens were led by sophomore Madison Quan who scored a team-high 18 points with eight rebounds and five assists. First-year Kaitlyn Leung came off of the bench with 16 points and seven rebounds while junior Renae Tamura had 10 points and five rebounds.
The Sagehens struggled from the floor at just 34.5% but kicked it up from beyond the arc as they clipped on 7-15 attempts for 46.7%. Both teams turned the ball over 13 times while the Sagehens tallied 12 points off of turnovers and outscored the Tigers in the paint 22-16.
The Sagehens started out with a slight lead to open up the first quarter after taking an 11-7 lead after a Tamura three-pointer with 6:33 left in the first. The Sagehens held on to the lead throughout the first quarter and extended their advantage to 21-18 to end the first after Quan made a layup in the expiring seconds of the quarter.
The Tigers came out and tied the game early on in the second quarter at 21-21 with just under seven minutes to play. The Sagehens had a difficult time scoring the basketball in the second quarter with just a shooting percentage of 16.7% and a total of seven points in the quarter. Occidental eventually took the lead at 29-28 after a made layup and the Sagehens hit a scoring drought and went without a basket for the last five minutes of the first half. The Tigers took their largest lead of the game to end the second quarter and held a 33-28 lead at halftime.
Pomona-Pitzer came back quick in the third and reclaimed the lead at 36-35 after a Leung layup midway through the third. The Tigers answered and took back the lead at 43-38 but the Sagehens ended the third on a 6-1 run to cut the lead down to 44-42 heading into the fourth.
Pomona-Pitzer and Occidental went back and forth taking the lead away from one another to start the fourth as the Sagehens called a timeout tied at 48-48 with 4:38 left to play. The Sagehens nailed a big three by Leung out of the timeout and a few possessions later, a huge three by Quan to extend the lead to 55-48 with 3:13 to play.
The Sagehens were at their best when it mattered the most as they outscored Occidental 18-9 in the fourth quarter with Quan scoring 10 of her 18 within the final 10 minutes of the game. The Sagehens end the regular season as the No. 4 seed in the upcoming SCIAC Postseason Tournament where they will travel to No. 1 Redlands on Thursday, February 27th at 7:00 p.m.
