ORANGE, Calif. – After suffering a tough loss in their SCIAC opener to Redlands, the Chapman University women's basketball team bounced back to defeat Cal Lutheran, 81-72 at the Hutton Sports Center on Saturday night. Senior G Kimi Takaoka, junior G Andrea Villanueva and sophomore F Sandra Gao accounted for 59 of the Panthers' 81 points en route to the team's first conference win of the season.

After watching the men falter late in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader, the women's team was determined to get out to an early lead. Gao made sure they did just that, scoring six of her game-high 23 points in the first three minutes of play as the Panthers jumped out to a 12-7 lead.

Chapman (3-2, 1-1 SCIAC) maintained a healthy lead for most of the first half thanks to 15 Regals turnovers. After shooting 51.7 percent from the field, the Panthers took a 38-30 lead into halftime.

Cal Lutheran (2-3, 0-2 SCIAC) came out firing in the second half, scoring five unanswered points as part of a 14-4 run in the first five minutes that results in a two-point lead. The two teams exchanged leads 20 times from that point forward, raising the intensity in the Hutton Center to a fever pitch until the Panthers mounted an 11-0 run with 5:47 remaining to put the game on ice.

The Panthers will be in search of a second straight conference win next Saturday when they play host to the Whittier Poets at 7 p.m.

Box score: http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2013-14/boxscores/20131207_h0rp.xml

by Ryan Cavinder
Sports Information Assistant

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