CHICAGO – California Baptist University dominated its way to its first Western Athletic Conference win of the season, with an emphatic 80-65 win on the road at Chicago State.
"The team played with a really good energy tonight," head coach
Jarrod Olson said. "Lexy [Ram] really got us going. It's really good to get our first WAC win."
Ram scored 12 of her team-high 19 points in the third quarter to extend the Lancer lead to 22 by the end of the period. Ram also grabbed seven boards and tallied three assists in 25 minutes of action.
Taylor Wu (13),
Delacy Brown (11), and
Sydney Palma (10) all scored in double-digits as well, while Brown and Palma each collected five rebounds.
Georgia Dale had one of her signature all-around games, as she filled up the box score with eight points, seven rebounds, four steals and three assists.
The Lancers led by just three at the end of the first quarter, which saw six lead changes. By the end of the first 10 minutes, CBU built up a lead it would not relinquish. The lead grew to 10 points by halftime and 22 after three before settling on the final margin of 15 at the final horn.
CBU not only won the hustle battle, outscoring the Cougars 24-9 on fast break points, but also dominated the bench scoring, 26-9.
"We had good play from Taylor and Sydney off the bench," Olson said.
California Baptist had a statistical awakening, as it grabbed the most team rebounds (45) against an NCAA Division I opponent since they had 50 against Alabama A&M. Along with those rebounds, the Lancers had their best night from the field in a month, shooting 41.2 percent overall.
The Lancers sit at 9-10 for the year, and 1-4 in conference, as they head to Kansas City for their Saturday matchup with the third-place Roos. UMKC has a record of 11-9 for the year and is 4-2 in WAC play.
