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Leopards fall to Athenas in second half, 52-38

La Verne junior guard Faye Osburn drives past Claremont-Mudd-Scripps junior guard Jai Dungca in the third quarter of the game, as La Verne center Emily Myers sets up a screen. The Leopards trailed most of the game and battled it out, though they lost their fifth straight game to the Athenas, 52-38, Tuesday at Frantz Athletic Court. / photo by Terrence Lewis
La Verne junior guard Faye Osburn drives past Claremont-Mudd-Scripps junior guard Jai Dungca in the third quarter of the game, as La Verne center Emily Myers sets up a screen. The Leopards trailed most of the game and battled it out, though they lost their fifth straight game to the Athenas, 52-38, Tuesday at Frantz Athletic Court. / photo by Terrence Lewis

Jolene Nacapuy
Sports Editor

The women’s basketball team could not keep up in the second half as it fell, 52-38, to the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas Tuesday at Frantz Athletic Court.

With the loss, the Leopards extended their losing streak to five games.

The team is now 2-10 in SCIAC and 3-17 overall.

The Athenas remain undefeated in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

La Verne senior center Emily Myers sank two free throws to get the Leopards within two, 20-18, with 45 seconds left in the second quarter, the closest they would get through the whole game.

CMS had the last possession of the first half, as junior guard Jai Dungca knocked in a shot behind the arc to be beat the buzzer, closing out the half, 23-18.

“We were a different team in the second half, clearly,” head coach Julie Shaw said. “Our first half, that’s how we’re capable of playing every single game, but you gotta show it for two halves.”

La Verne players said they were looking forward to the game.

“Coming in we knew they were undefeated, so we kind of played like we had nothing to lose, and wanted to give them their first loss,” junior forward Noelle Cobb said. “But unfortunately we didn’t. We played really good defense as a team, but it wasn’t enough.”

The third quarter started off in favor of the Athenas, as they managed to extend the lead to 10, 28-18.

With less than six minutes left in the third, Myers managed to put in two free throws to cut the deficit to single digits.

Then less than four minutes to go, Myers took an assist from senior guard Shannon Irwin and made a jump shot over CMS junior forward Quinn Glosniak, making the score 31-22.

Myers finished the game with a team-high 14 points.

To begin the fourth quarter, junior guard Erika Pagkalinawan made La Verne’s only three-pointer of the game to light a spark for the Leopards.

Though, the Athenas managed to answer back with a three of their own.

The game continued back-and-forth with missed consecutive shots. With 6:57 on the clock in the fourth, senior forward Diana Peña put up a floater, 42-32.

CMS managed to go on a 4-0 run, to extend the lead, 50-32.

With 1:37 on the clock, La Verne junior guard Karli Kato broke that run with a jump shot from the middle.

La Verne could not rally enough points with time running out, and fell, 52-38.

“The second half, we hit a couple hiccups, and we just gotta learn how to finish a game,” Irwin said. “It’s been the same story all season, and we’re just gonna go back to practice and work even harder.”

Irwin finished the game with six assists and credits her teammates for helping her get them.

“They created the opportunity and space for me,” she said. “My teammates did all the work, and I just happened to be the one who threw them the ball, and if it wasn’t for them making the basket then I wouldn’t have gotten them.”

The first quarter started slow, but La Verne managed to take a 4-0 lead early.

It was a constant battle in the paint, with both teams attempting to take the lead, as the score remained low in the first quarter, 12-8.

Irwin found Myers wide-open in the paint to take a 14-12 lead, with 6:54 on the clock in the second quarter, their first lead since the first quarter.

But it would be their only lead for the rest of the game.

The Athenas held the Leopards to a 32.6 shooting percentage.

“We have to play two halves. We need to do all the little things like compete harder and practice so it translates into the game,” Shaw said. “We need to have more fire and compete, and be able to sustain that the whole game. We have it, there’s no doubt about it, but we need to be committed to doing that the entire 40 minutes.”

Cobb said the team needs to work more on defense and be more aggressive offensively in the paint.

This season has been a rough one for the Leopards, but Shaw looks on the bright side.

“The biggest part is that we’ve been able to stay together as a team this whole time and I think that’s a testament to our team,” Shaw said. “For our team to have a record like ours and still be able to come in and do work and stay together as a family that’s huge, and says a lot about a team. I think that’s one of the biggest reasons why I love this team is because they haven’t given up,” she said.

The Leopards hit the court again to face the Occidental Tigers at 4 p.m. Saturday at Frantz Athletic Court.

Jolene Nacapuy can be reached at jolene.nacapuy@laverne.edu.

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