The women’s basketball team came up one game short in its bid for a league championship, losing to the Occidental Tigers, 51-37, Saturday in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference finals at Rush Gymnasium in Eagle Rock.
Occidental capitalized on the Leopards’ 20 turnovers in the game while only allowing 29 percent shooting.
Leading the way for the Tigers was sophomore guard Stephanie Babij, who registered a game-high 11 points to go along with nine rebounds.
Freshman forward Clarissa Holz and junior forward Emily Carrillo both chipped in 10 points for the Leopards and Carrillo added a game-high 11 rebounds.
The Leopards advanced to the finals after a 50-48 victory over Redlands in the semi-finals. They held the Bulldogs to 27 percent shooting and forced 18 turnovers.
Carrillo posted 12 points to go along with seven rebounds and senior forward Trenecca Jones provided 11 points.
The team finished with a 19-8 overall record, and 10-4 in SCIAC.
Carrillo finished the season with First Team All-SCIAC honors averaging 13.4 points per game, while sophomore guard Ashley Paul was named to the Second Team.
The loss proves to be seniors Jones’ and Lillie Parks’ last game for La Verne.
With only two seniors on the team, the youth of La Verne should put them in a great position to compete for a title next year.
Kevin Garrity can be reached at kevin.garrity@laverne.edu.
