CMS Women's Basketball Capitalizes on 40 Points From the Bench in 77-49 Win Over Occidental

Note Schedule Change: This coming Saturday's game with La Verne, originally scheduled to be played at CMS at 5 p.m., will now be played at La Verne at 2 p.m.

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The CMS Women's Basketball team used 40 points from its bench to defeat Occidental 77-49 and earn its eighth straight win on Wednesday night at Roberts Pavilion. Leading the bench scoring was Gloria Bates with 13 points on 5-8 shooting including a perfect 3-3 from the free-throw line. Maezelle Millan added nine points on 4-5 from the field, to clinch back-to-back solid performances off the bench for the sophomore guard. 

The Athenas have won eight in a row and improve to 4-1 in SCIAC play as well as 12-2 overall with the 28-point win. Occidental has its record fall to 7-7 overall and have dropped back-to-back SCIAC games to move to 1-4 in the conference. CMS sits in a three-way tie for first place, in the loss column, with Chapman and Pomona-Pitzer. 

Maya Love paced all scorers with 18 points on 8-10 from the field and grabbed 10 rebounds to earn her fifth double-double of the season. The Athenas ran out to an 11-3 lead over halfway through the first quarter. Bates and Love combined for eight of the 11 points during the run and after ten minutes of play the Athenas had a 16-7 lead through the first quarter. CMS outscored Occidental 8-6 in the paint and the bench held a 9-0 edge through the opening 10 minutes. 

The second quarter began much the way the first ended, with Kate Parrish draining a jumper to extend the CMS lead to 18-7 followed by a bucket from Ellery Koelker-Wolfe giving the Athenas a 20-7 lead. The Athenas went on a 9-5 run to extend their lead to 29-15 with 5:08 left in the first half following a three-pointer to break the streak by Mallory North of Occidental. CMS scored four of the next seven made baskets including a pair of buckets from Love and one basket apiece for Millan and Teeana Cotangco giving the Athenas a 36-22 lead at the half. 

CMS held Occidental to 24.3% (9-37) shooting in the first half and countered with 45.5% (15-33) shooting of its own in the opening 20 minutes of play. Much of the damage was done in the paint with 20 of the 36 first-half points coming in the lane and 13 first-half points scored by the bench. Bates had six points at the halfway mark and was joined by Lauren Longo who made her only three-pointer of the first 20 minutes to give her three points at the break. Kate Parrish and Millan had just two points over the first 20 minutes. 

The third quarter started with three missed shots before Taylor Yoshida made a layup to break the ice and cut the deficit for Occidental to 36-24. CMS responded quickly with a bucket by Bogle at the 7:16 mark and then baskets by Millan and Bates to stretch the advantage to 42-28 with 5:31 remaining in the third frame. Following a hard-contact foul that was ruled to be a technical against Occidental's Alyssa Ramlochan, Bates hit three-of-four free-throws and Millan capitalized on a steal by Lia Gagliuso to stretch the advantage to 47-28 with 4:35 left in the third frame. 

Millan scored the next three baskets for the Athenas stretching the lead to 50-32 with 2:40 left in the third, she also finished with nine points on 4-5 shooting on the evening. Following a pair of free-throws by Lindsey Cleary, the final two-plus minutes of the third quarter turned into a free-throw contest with both teams being in the bonus. Yoshida hit two free-throws to cut the score to 52-37 with 1:32 remaining, and then made two more from the free-throw line to cut the Athenas' lead to 52-39 just over 15 seconds later.  

Love and Kellie Okamura sank two-pointers to give the Athenas a 56-41 lead through 30 minutes of play at Roberts Pavilion. The fourth quarter began with a flurry of offensive activity for the Athenas; Parrish made back-to-back layups stretching the advantage to 60-43 and the Athenas used a 21-8 edge in the final frame to pull away to a 77-49 victory. 

Parrish finished with six points on 3-7 from the field, Flora Durgerian played six minutes and made 1-2 from three-point land. Bogle finished with seven points over 26 minutes on 3-9 from the field. Longo finished with three points, and Kellie Okamura scored four points over seven minutes. Bates finished with eight rebounds and 13 points off the bench. CMS dominated the paint 50-20 and scored 19 points off 14 Occidental turnovers. 

The CMS Women's basketball team will be back in action on Saturday, Jan. 12 at La Verne at 2 p.m. The Athenas stay on the road at Caltech on Jan. 14, at Whittier on Jan. 16, and at Chapman on Jan. 19 and then return home to face Sixth Street Rival Pomona-Pitzer on Jan. 24 and then Redlands on Jan. 26 at Roberts Pavilion.