Box Score Orange, Calif.— Chapman women's basketball left the Hutton Sports Center breathless as La Verne pushed them to their breaking point. The Panthers pulled off a 104-101 victory over La Verne to open up SCIAC play. The Panthers trailed by as many as 15 points, and forced double overtime.
Freshman guard
Kira Watanabe caught the ball on the far left wing in the first overtime with the Panthers down two. La Verne's guards made contact, committing a foul and sending the guard to the ground with 3.4 seconds on the clock. Watanabe went to the line with her team's hopes hanging in the balance and ended up knocking down two of the biggest free throws of the night to send the game into a second overtime.
Sophomore forwards
Layla Woods and
Shanna Brown dominated all night leading Chapman with a combined 57 points and 26 rebounds for the evening. Brown, who had 30 points and 11 rebounds, led the team offensively and helped ice the game during the second overtime. The forward went 12/14 from the line and knocked down two free throws to end the second overtime to clinch victory.
Woods recorded a new career-high 27 points and 15 rebounds. She set the tone for the Panthers to outrebound La Verne 48-37 on the night. The forward showed up when her team needed her the most gobbling up boards like their lives depended on it. Those rebounds contributed to Chapman's 11 second chance points.
Makenna Nitao (13),
Maile Nakaji (9) and Watanabe (9) all contributed a massive offensive punch from beyond the arc and mid range area. The three young guards forced La Verne to pick their poison defensively. They could either leave Woods and Brown space at the elbow to create or leave open one of the guards to launch a three-pointer.
It worked.
Chapman shot 50 percent from the field for the game, and knocked down 84.8 percent of their free throws, including going 12/14 from the line in double overtime. The Panthers used every bit of that strong scoring in the third quarter, when they roared back into the game outscoring La Verne 23-15.
The Panthers will return home again on Sat. Dec 7 at 2:00 p.m. against Caltech to continue conference play.
