Women's basketball dominant in SCIAC opener

ORANGE, Calif. – The Chapman University women's basketball team never trailed and cruised to a 76-47 victory against the short-handed Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens in the Panthers' home and SCIAC opener. The Panthers won their fifth game in a row to begin the year and won their SCIAC opener for the second year in a row.

Sophomore Lucy Criswell capped an 11-2 run for the Panthers to open the game with her first bucket of the night. The lead increased to 21-10 at the end of the first and the Panthers left little doubt in the outcome as they started the second quarter on an 18-2 run. Criswell led the Panthers with 12 points off the bench.

The scoring spread throughout the team as 14 different Panthers had at least two points. Senior Jaime Hum-Nishikado knocked down a trio of threes for nine points while sophomore Marissa Dunn and freshman Brittany McPherson each had eight. Junior Jaryn Fajardo scored six points to go along with six rebounds, six assists and four steals.

Sophomore Rachel Williams filled up the stat sheet with 11 rebounds, including six on the offensive end. As a team, the Panthers outrebounded the Sagehens 57-29 and shot 41 percent compared to Pomona-Pitzer's 33.3 percent.

The Sagehens started the game with just six players and played the second half with five players after an injury. Renae Tamura drained five three-pointers to lead the Sagehens with 23 points.

The Panthers continued to pull away in the second half and led by as much as 38 points.

Chapman enters its finals break from the schedule but returns to the hardwood on Dec. 19 in an exhibition game at UC Irvine. The Panthers host Hiram on Dec. 21 at 7 p.m.