CBU Passes PacWest Test

Saturday, February 3

Riverside, Calif.

5:00 PM

California Baptist University

10-11, 7-6PWC

Notre Dame de Namur

9-13, 6-8PWC

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Notre Dame de Namur	16	13	17	24	70
California Baptist	26	19	30	23	98

Photo by: Conner Schuh

2/3/2018 7:38:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Saturday was a crucial day for both California Baptist University and Notre Dame de Namur's hopes of qualifying for the PacWest Tournament in March.

The Lancers and Argonauts occupied the eighth and ninth-place spot in the conference standings coming into the game, with a top-six spot needing to advance to the conference championships, which will be held at CBU March 1-3.

Significance of the conference game was not lost on the Lancers and they came fired up from the first tip to handily defeat the Argonauts 98-70 with a season-high scoring output on Saturday evening.

"We just know what we have to do to make the conference tournament and that starts in practice," junior Emma Meriggioli said. "We have an eye on the standings and where we are, so we are working our way back up and hopefully we get there."

A balanced and efficient offense was characteristic of CBU from start to finish, as it shot 52.5 percent as a team (32-for-61) and 41.4 from three (12-29), and assisted on 25 of 32 field goals. It improved CBU to 10-11 and 7-6 in the PacWest, while NDNU drops to 9-13, 6-8.

"Tonight, you could tell they felt pretty comfortable out there and that was helped by ball movement. Once shots start going down everybody starts breathing a little easier," Coach Jarrod Olson said.

Five Lancers scored in double figures: Georgia Dale (21, six assists); Meriggioli (17, six rebounds); Tori Mitchell (14, six rebounds); Lexy Ram (14, three assists) and Akayla Hackson (12, four assists, three steals).

"Ball movement definitely played a big role in this game," Hackson said. "I think this was the best game we've played in terms of ball movement. The game just becomes easy, the ball starts finding open shooters."

Right from the first tip, CBU had little trouble scoring and specifically driving into the paint, which opened things up for its shooters early. Ane Olaeta, Dale and Mitchell laid in easy buckets, which led to a three from Meriggioli and then a Ram jumper to make up an 11-2 run for the Lancers in the first 2:50 of the game.

The balanced and efficient offensive attack continued through the first quarter for CBU, as it took a 26-16 lead into the second quarter. Mitchell and Meriggioli scored eight and seven points, respectively, in those first 10 minutes, while five other Lancers had at least two points.

Notre Dame de Namur could not contain the Lancers in the second quarter, either, as CBU's inside-out offense continued to click. Dale, in particular, sparked the Lancers and scored 10 of her 12 first-half points in the second quarter. She sank two jumpers in the final 1:30 of the half to increase the Lancers' advantage to 45-29 going into the half.

"We did a really nice job defensively, which led to some easy baskets for us," Olson said. "We got into a really good rhythm. The team did a really nice job sharing the ball; we have been preaching ball movement quite a lot lately."

CBU nearly doubled up NDNU in the third quarter, outscoring the Argonauts 30-17 to take a 75-46 lead into the fourth. It put the Argonauts in far too deep of a hole for them to have any realistic hopes of a comeback, and the Lancers did not miss much in the fourth en route to the 28-point victory.

The Lancers jumped from eighth to sixth in the conference standings with Saturday's win. They are in the middle of a grueling three-games-in-five-days stretch, with Academy of Art visiting on Monday at 5 p.m.

"We have been talking a lot about where things stand in the PacWest. We are working as hard to get as many wins as we can, to make the conference tournament and finish as high as we can. We are starting to find our rhythm a little bit. Each game we come out, we are trying to do our best to continue that and hopefully knock a few teams off along the way," Olson concluded.