THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Entering the second half trailing 48-44, Cal Lutheran women's basketball outscored Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 49-27 over the last two quarters in its 93-75 win over the Athenas.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Sara Mills had the hot hand from beyond the arc to start the game. She hit back-to-back threes in the Regals' (12-4, 4-3 SCIAC) first two possessions and sank one more less than two minutes later to put the Regals in front 11-7. Despite Mills' hot start, the Athenas (5-10, 1-5 SCIAC) pushed the pace on offense and ended the opening quarter on top 22-21.
The Athenas kicked off the second quarter with a 16-6 run, shooting a perfect 6-6 from the field during that stretch. At the 5:35 mark, they led by 11 points 38-27, their largest lead of the game. After a timeout by head coach Kelli DiMuro, the Regals answered right back with an 11-4 run of their own to cut their deficit to four points going into halftime.
It was all Regals in the second half as they flipped the script on both ends to take control of the game. With the Regals trailling 53-52 at the 6:06 mark of the third quarter, Kaiya Mack went on a personal 9-3 run to give the Regals their first lead of the second half. Mack, who had just six points on 3-9 shooting in the first half, went on a tear in the final two quarters, scoring 22 points on 9-14 shooting.
Entering the final quarter ahead 63-58, the Regals outscored the Athenas 30-17 in the fourth to close out the game.
Aliya DiMuro made back-to-back buckets to start the quarter and Mack scored a driving layup to extend the lead to 71-60. From 5:15 to 2:58, the Regals scored 11 straight points, with nine coming from Mack, to go ahead 86-64, all but sealing the result.
THE NUMBERS
- Mack: 28 PTS, 6 REB, 4 STL
- Mills: 19 PTS, 3-4 3PT, 2 STL
- Alline Ballard: 15 PTS, 13 REB
- DiMuro: 15 PTS, 10 REB
- Janna Holley: 10 PTS, 7 AST, 2 STL
FROM HEAD COACH KELLI DIMRUO
On bouncing back after a loss: "CMS is a tough team, but we dug deep today, believed in each other, and started working together more on offense. Kaiya Mack was awesome and Alline and Aliya were great in the post tonight."
On making defensive adjustments in the second half: "We played a little zone and that worked, just mixed it up. They lost some momentum in the second half when we picked it up on defense."
UP NEXT
The Regals have won nine out of their last 10 games and look to stay hot on the road against Whittier. They travel to take on the Poets on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 2 p.m.
