Box Score CLAREMONT, CA. -- The Pomona-Pitzer Women's Basketball team fell to non-conference opponent UC Santa Cruz 78-59 on Sunday afternoon at Voelkel Gymnasium.
Season Impact: with the loss, the Sagehens fall to 5-11 overall.
The Sagehens were led by Madison Quan who netted 20 points with five assists and five steals. Emily Church tallied 12 and Emily Lee scored 10 while Kellie Au chipped in with eight in the loss.
The Sagehens shot at 29.6% from the floor but were slightly better from beyond the arc at 30.3% hitting on 10 of 33 shots from three. The Sagehens were outrebounded 43-31 by UC Santa Cruz and although the defense forced 17 turnovers, the Sagehens committed 21 of their own and allowed 22 points off of those miscues.
Pomona-Pitzer got out to a hot start to open up the ballgame and hit three-straight threes to open the game to get out to a 9-0 lead to force Santa Cruz to take an early timeout with just two minutes gone in the first quarter. The Sagehens kept their lead for the rest of the first quarter and held a 21-18 lead.
UC Santa Cruz started to come back in the second quarter and tied the game at 23-23 after a made three-pointer with eight minutes left before halftime. The Banana Slugs took their first lead of the game at 24-23 and began to pull away late in the second quarter with a 38-30 lead with 1:30 to go. The Sagehens hit a pair of free throws at the end of the first half but trailed 39-32 at the break.
Santa Cruz controlled the third quarter after they outscored the Sagehens 22-10. Santa Cruz went up by double digits after a three pushed the lead to 46-37 and continued to extend the lead to 58-40 late in the third and held a 61-42 lead heading into the fourth.
The Sagehens played well in the fourth and matched the Banana Slugs on the score total with each team netting 17 points in the fourth. The Sagehens forced seven turnovers in the fourth quarter alone and converted six of seven free throws that aided them in a 17-point quarter, but the large lead built by Santa Cruz in the third was enough to ride out the fourth quarter and hand the Sagehens their second loss of the weekend.
Up Next: The Sagehens will next host Whittier on Saturday, January 28th at 5:00 p.m.
