CLAREMONT, Calif. -
Tanya Ghai scored 26 points, and the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's basketball team went on a 20-0 run spanning both halves, as the Athenas took a 72-58 win over La Verne on Wednesday evening at Roberts Pavilion.
With the win, CMS improves to 15-4 on the season and 9-1 in the SCIAC, bouncing back from its first conference loss, which came in the final second on Saturday to Pomona-Pitzer (66-65). La Verne slips to 5-13 overall and 1-8 in conference play with the loss.
CMS trailed 27-23 with t3:45 left in the first half, but closed on an 11-0 run to take a 34-27 lead into the break, and then opened the second half with nine more consecutive points to build the lead up to 43-27. CMS led by as many as 17, and La Verne was able to get the lead back down to nine in the fourth quarter, but the Athenas were able to hold off any Leopard comeback efforts.
Katie Resendiz had a double-double for CMS with 13 points and 12 rebounds, while also adding four blocked shots.
Caleigh Edwards ended with 10 points and nine rebounds to come up just one rebound shy of a double-double as well.
Ghai started the 20-0 run with two straight baskets, and Resendiz put CMS ahead to stay with two foul shots with 2:32 left in the half.
Kylie Wang capped off the half with two foul shots to make it 34-27, and Ghai had seven points in a 9-0 run to start the second half, capping off the 20-0 run with a three-pointer with 7:58 left in the third.
That basket gave her 23 points, and the Leopards shadowed her all over the floor the rest of the way to hold her to 26 for the game on 9-16 shooting, but the Athenas were able to get points from other sources. After La Verne closed it to nine in the fourth quarter,
Payton Sugar knocked down a three-pointer off a kick-out pass from
Laura Strenk to make it 64-52 with 5:09 to play.
La Verne answered with a three-pointer, but Strenk scored the next six CMS points on four foul shots and a paint jumper to help put it away. Alyssa Smith finished with 22 points and 15 rebounds for La Verne in the loss.
CMS will be back in action on Saturday when it travels to Chapman for a 4 p.m. contest.
