Last-second basket completes Panthers' comeback win

ORANGE, Calif. – 'Tis the season for Panther comebacks. One night after watching the Chapman University men's basketball team rally from a double-digit deficit to win, the women delivered a comeback victory of their own.

The Panthers' women's basketball team trailed nearly the whole game, but a layup by sophomore C Sandra Gao with 0.6 seconds remaining gave Chapman a 55-54 win over visiting Messiah College (Pa.) at the Hutton Sports Center on Monday night.

The win was the third straight for Chapman (8-3) and sixth in its last seven games. However, the Panthers showed signs of fatigue in the first half, playing their third game in four days. Chapman shot just 24.2 percent (8-for-33) from the floor in the first 20 minutes and trailed by as many as nine points with 2:52 remaining before halftime. But the Panthers closed the period on a 9-4 run to cut the gap to just four points at the break.

Fast forward to the 6:54 mark in the second half when Chapman took its first lead of the game thanks to a scoring drought by the Falcons. Messiah (5-4) missed 10 straight field goal attempts over a 6-minute stretch and the Panthers chipped away at the lead until senior G Kimi Takaoka scored back-to-back jumpers to give Chapman a 46-44 advantage.

The lead changed hands multiple times over the final minutes. With the Panthers down by two, Gao tied the game at 51 with 1:14 remaining and senior PG Andrea Villanueva added a go-ahead bucket with 23 seconds left.

Eleven seconds later, Messiah's senior G Chelsea Danel drained a clutch three-pointer to put the Falcons up by one, but Gao answered with the game winning layup off a pass under the basket from Villanueva to give Chapman the victory.

Chapman (44.4 percent) was better in the second half as Takaoka scored 13 of her game-high 20 points in the period. Gao finished one rebound shy of a double-double with 13 points and nine boards. Villanueva finished with 10 points, four assists and three steals.

Danel was the Falcons' leading scorer with 11 points, including a pair of threes, and added five steals.

Following the New Year holiday, Chapman will travel to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps to resume SCIAC play on Jan. 4. The Panthers' next home game will be Jan. 7 when they host Biola University in a non-conference matchup.

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director

Boxscore: http://chapmanathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2013-14/boxscores/20131230_12wv.xml

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