Box Score
CLAREMONT, CALIF. – No one would ever confuse Claremont, California with the capital of Alaska. Nor would this lovely college town east of Los Angeles ever seem a likely locale for a high school reunion of native Alaskans. The Pacific women's basketball team opened its regular season with a performance more befitting the hotter clime of the Golden State than the chilly terrain of the Last Frontier, defeating Pomona-Pitzer 57-44.
In a game that featured three-fifths of the starting lineup of Juneau-Douglas High School's 2009-10 Alaska state champion girls basketball team, Pacific put the Sagehens in the deep freeze with an impressive defensive performance.
Leading for the majority of the first half, Erin Edwards' free throw gave the 'Hens a 20-15 advantage with 7:03 left before halftime. It would be nearly six minutes before Pomona-Pitzer (0-2) scored again, as
Erica Schultz (Sr., Medford, Ore.) capped a 9-0 run with a jump shot to give the Boxers a 24-20 lead. Up 26-22 at half, Pacific opened the second half with a 7-0 run, capped by a three-point play by Brittany Anderson (Sr., Missoula, Mont.).
Anderson led all scorers with 12 points and paced a balanced Boxer attack that saw all 13 players reach the floor with 10 in the scoring column.
In all, Pacific held Pomona-Pitzer to one basket over a nearly 10 minute stretch of the game to take command early in the second half. The 'Hens would get no closer than eight points the rest of the way, held to 29.4-percent shooting from the field, while the Boxers connected on 41.8-percent, led by Anderson's 5-of-7 performance from the floor.
Anderson and
Paige Jensen (Jr., Bemidji, Minn.) each had five steals as the Boxers forced 26 Pomona-Pitzer turnovers. Jensen added eight rebounds and eight points, while Schultz also had eight points with a game-high 10 rebounds and four assists.
Ruthie Shapiro led the Sagehens with 11 points. Freshman post Maria Weyhrauch, a former teammate of Pacific's
Annette Highley (So.) and
Nani Ostrom (Fr.) at Juneau-Douglas, finished with seven points and six rebounds for Pomona-Pitzer. Highley started and did not score, while Ostrom, a back-up point guard, scored three points in her Boxer debut.
Pacific finishes its two-game jaunt to the Southland at Caltech on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
