A combination of crisp passing and fast ball movement brought the Regals’ basketball team to a victory Saturday night against the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens by a score of 61-36, bringing their record to 20-3.

The Regals started off slow as the zone defense demonstrated by the Sagehens had the Regals making only nine of 26 shots in the first half at the California Lutheran University Gilbert Arena.

The Regals trailed behind the Sagehens until 15:41 in the first, when senior guard Alex Nelson made a three-pointer, bringing the score 7-5. Seconds later, Pomona-Pitzer tied the game up again with a layup from sophomore Maria Weyhrauch. The game went back and forth until a run at the end capped off by senior guard Jazmyne Porter’s layup with 39 seconds gave the Regals a 28-19 lead at halftime.

“Having a team like Pomona that you’re supposed to kill, and them coming out and being ahead of you, is hard. But we got through it,” said Nelson.

A strength in the first half for the Regals was their free throws, which carried into the second half. With a total team free throw percentage of 66.7, senior Erica Whitley stepped up, making all four of her attempted free throws. Other contributors were senior Starla Wright, sophomore Keeley Anderson and senior Rachel Heagy.

Following halftime, the Regals came back unstoppable. Wright made a layup within seconds of the second half with assistance from sophomore guard Natalie Stone. Senior forward Channing Fleischmann made all four of her attempted three-pointers and two rebounds.

CLU created 14 turnovers throughout the game by trapping the ball handler. Porter had four steals, while Whitley had three, contributing to a team total of 12 steals.

Using their passing speed to break the opposing defense, the Regals had 16 assists, five of which belonged to Nelson, five by Whitley, two by Stone and three by Porter.

“We had a chance to spurt, we spurted, and we put away that team,” said head coach Roy Dow.

The intense defense played by the Regals in the second half caused the Sagehens to make only 21.4 percent of their shots.

Wright, who was last week’s female athlete of the week at California Lutheran University, had seven defensive rebounds. She had the game high for rebounds with 11.

Players and fans wore pink in honor of Play 4 Kay, an initiative in honor of Kay Yow that raises awareness on and off the court for breast cancer. Donations were collected at the game and will benefit the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.

“The seniors right now are the third all-time-winningest class at Cal Lutheran. We have a shot at having the all-time-winningest season,” Dow said.

To join fans in support of the Regals’ winning season, come out to the Gilbert Arena this Thursday, Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m. as they face off against the University of Redlands Bulldogs.

Caitlin Dimmitt
Staff Writer
Published Feb. 13, 2013