Strand, Zurasky lead women's basketball over Illinois College
ORANGE, Calif. – A monster double-double from Julia Strand and 12 points off the bench from Zoe Zurasky led the Chapman University women's basketball team to a 74-66 win over visiting Illinois College. The Panthers pulled their record back to .500 with their second consecutive win.
Strand filled the stat sheet with 20 points, 16 rebounds, five steals and three assists in the game. She brought down 15 defensive rebounds to help limit Illinois College to just nine second chance points.
Zurasky went 5-for-6 from the floor and knocked down a pair of free throws to score 12 points off the bench. She also had six assists.
After the first seven minutes, the Panthers led 16-15. Mia Yamamoto hit a pair of free throws moments later to boost the lead to three points and spark a Chapman run. Chapman finished the quarter on an 8-2 run to take a 22-17 lead at the first quarter break.
The Lady Blues were never able to entirely close the gap but never let Chapman pull away. After shooting over 60 percent in the second quarter, Chapman took a 42-35 lead into halftime. The Panthers started to pull away in the third and took their biggest lead of the night when a Zurasky jumper made it 50-38.
However, Chapman scored just five more points through the last six minutes as Illinois College sliced the lead down to eight. IC continued to cut into the lead behind a 17-point effort from Maya Williams but Chapman countered by going 9-of-12 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter and getting a couple of key stops late in the game.
Chapman shot 50.9 percent on the night and forced 20 turnovers from the Lady Blues while holding them to 38.5 percent shooting.
Chapman returns to the Hutton Center floor on Dec. 28 to take on UW-La Crosse at 2 p.m. in the first game of a basketball tripleheader.
By Steven Olveda
Sports Information Director
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