THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - The Cal Lutheran women's basketball team kicked off Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) competition and the New Year in a positive way with a 72-58 victory over La Verne on Saturday night inside Gilbert Arena.
After grinding out a victory in overtime against UC Santa Cruz in their last game, the Regals held the lead for all but two minutes against La Verne, and led by as many as 20 points, on their way to a third straight win.
The Leopards took an early lead in the opening minutes but Jessica Salottolo answered back quickly scoring on back-to-back possessions with a fast-break jumper and a three-pointer to take a 10-9 advantage with 16:44 left in the first half.
Salottolo's three marked the beginning of a 10-0 run for the Violet and Gold that featured post players Haley Hodgson and Taylor Messick adding baskets in the paint. Hodgson kept the momentum going for CLU with two blocks during the run.
La Verne sank a three-pointer to end their scoring drought with 13:47 on the clock, but Katy Lindor answered back with a three-pointer of her own and followed that with a three-point play the old fashion way to take an 11-point lead, 23-12.
After taking a 38-31 lead into the break, the Regals committed six turnovers in the first five minutes of the second half, allowing La Verne to get back in the game and cut Cal Lutheran's lead to three, 44-41 with 14:29 remaining.
The Regals responded with a 12 unanswered points to take a 56-41 lead and put the game out of reach with just under seven minutes left.
CLU dominated the paint, outscoring the Leopards 30-12 around the basket and the Regals capitalized on their 15 offensive rebounds with 17 second chance points compared to just nine for La Verne.
Chelsea Jacoby had strong all-around performance with 12 points, seven rebounds, five assists and tied for game-high honors with Hodgson with five blocks. Cruz led all Regals with 14 points and Messick nearly had a double-double totaling 11 points and nine rebounds despite playing just 12 minutes due to foul trouble. Natalie Stone added five assists and now has at least five assists in all but one game this season.
La Verne was led by Shannon Irwin who had a game-high 19 points and Kayla Valentine added 10 points.
Cal Lutheran (6-4, 1-0 SCIAC) will continue conference play at home this Wednesday, Jan. 7 against Redlands at 7:30 p.m.
Box Score: CLU 72, LV 58
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