THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - In a rematch of last season's Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Postseason Tournament Semifinal, the Cal Lutheran women's basketball team got redemption with a 76-61 win over Chapman inside Gilbert Arena on Thursday night.
With the win, the Regals advance to the SCIAC Tournament Championship for the third time in four years and first time under second-year head coach Lindsay Goldblatt.
"I was really happy with our execution tonight," Goldblatt said. "Chapman is a really good team and very explosive on the offensive end so we wanted to do our best to slow them down."
Tonight it was the Regals who had the explosive offense as they buried a season-high 11 three-pointers on 22 attempts for an efficient 50 percent. Their 11 three-point field goals are the most in a game since Dec. 6, 2012 in a win over Pomona-Pitzer.
In the blink of an eye CLU put up the first points of the game as Natalie Stone found Jessica Salottolo cutting to the basket for a lay-up. The first of many threes came from Stone at the 15:05 mark to give the Regals an early 13-6 lead.
"We wanted to make sure we got quality shots and I thought our ball movement was great," Goldblatt said. "Our shot selection was much better than it has been in the past and we were able to knock down shots tonight."
The Violet and Gold maintained a six to seven point lead for much of the first half and led 28-22 with 4:29 remaining. Trianna Owen knocked down her second three-pointer of the half to extend the Regals lead to nine, and Sofia Cruz followed with a three of her own to give CLU their largest lead of the half, up 12 points, with 2:45 to go.
Chapman chipped away at the lead and right before the break the Panthers drained a deep three-pointer to make the halftime score 38-31.
Chelsea Jacoby opened the second half with a three-pointer and continued to fuel the CLU offense for the remainder of the game. Cruz and Owen continued their hot shooting from downtown and Jacoby joined them with another three-pointer at the 12:41 mark to take a 52-37 lead.
With 7:59 left to play, up 58-39, Jacoby was fouled shooting a three and sent to the line. She would hit all three free-throws to cap of a 17-2 run and give the Violet and Gold their biggest lead of the game with a 22-point advantage.
CLU would hold on to the lead and Owen capped off the scoring with a free-throw to give the Regals the final score of 76-61.
Jacoby finished with a game-high 19 points and completed the double-double with 11 rebounds. Owen and Cruz provided a huge boost off the bench scoring 14 and 11 points, respectively, and combined to shoot 6-for-11 from three-point range.
Stone flirted with another triple-double this season after yet another strong all-around performance. The senior finished with 10 points, nine rebounds and seven assists while adding three steals and knocking down two three-pointers. With 293 career assists, Stone sits just one behind Kim Galbreath (1983-86) for fourth on the CLU all-time list.
Chapman (13-13) was led by Andrea Villanueva with 13 points and Jaime Hum-Nishikado added 11 after going 3-for-6 from downtown.
"We're really happy with the way our offense worked today," Goldblatt continued. "Being able to have the offensive night that we had and have everyone contribute the way they did by knocking down good shots is a big confidence booster for us. We are looking forward to the challenge on Saturday."
Cal Lutheran (19-7) will travel to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (23-3) for the SCIAC Tournament Final this Saturday, Feb. 28 at 4:30 p.m. The game will be held at the Linde Activities Center at Harvey Mudd College and the winner will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Women's Basketball Division III Tournament.
Box Score: CLU 76, CU 61
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