ABILENE - California Baptist women's basketball finished today's game against Abilene Christian with just four players on the court and still had a shot at the buzzer to tie it up. The injury-shortened bench was further depleted by foul trouble in the fourth quarter and overtime, leading to just the second loss of the season for the Lancers as ACU claimed a 96-93 victory at home.
The Lancers are now 14-2 overall while receiving their first conference blemish of the year at 5-1. Grand Canyon remains the only unbeaten team in the Western Athletic Conference after beating Tarleton State on Saturday.
Chloe Webb produced one of the all-time great individual performances in CBU women's basketball history, scoring a new career-high 37 points, tied for the third most all-time, and is the second-most against a Division I opponent. Only Britney Thomas has put up a larger number in a single DI game, scoring 39 against Seattle U in Seattle on February 2, 2019. Webb's stat line was incredible, shooting 14-25 from the field (56.0%) with seven rebounds, four assists, and two steals.
Filipa Barros posted her first career double-double, scoring 15 and grabbing 14 rebounds, another career high for the second-year guard.
Anaiyah Tu'ua added 14 points and seven boards, and
Khloe Lemon recorded her sixth straight game in double-figures with 10 points.
The first quarter saw the Lancers struggle from the field to start, shooting just 6-16 as a squad. However, Webb would show up for her teammates, scoring 10 of CBU's 17 first-quarter points to keep the Lancers in it early. The slow start by the Blue and Gold, along with five first-quarter treys from the Wildcats, led to a 17-23 scoreline in favor of the home team at the end of the first.
Shots began to fall in the second quarter, which led to CBU opening the frame with a 12-5 run. CBU's shooting was perfect to start, which led to CBU flipping the script from trailing by as much as 13 in the first to leading by one with 7:26 in the second and forcing an ACU timeout. Perfection would continue until the 4:52 mark in the second quarter, but the Lancers had built a six-point lead by that point while shooting 7-7 from the field, 1-1 from distance, and 6-6 from the stripe. CBU would finish the final three-and-a-half minutes without a field goal but would still own a 45-42 lead at the break.
The second half was tightly contested, seeing seven lead changes and seven ties in 20 minutes. The Lancers' foul trouble had shortened the bench significantly, opening the door for ACU to take a four-point lead with about 80 seconds left. Barros made it a one-score game with a layup at the 1:04 mark, and Chloe Webb pulled the game even with just 28 seconds to go. CBU's defense locked down, denying the Wildcats a decent look at the end of regulation to force overtime.
The extra period saw Abilene rotating in fresh legs to lean on their most glaring advantage and eventually build a seven-point lead. The Lancer fought hard despite closing out the final seconds of overtime competing a player down. CBU drew up a good play during their final timeout which got Barros a decent look from the corner at the buzzer to send it into double overtime, but it wouldn't fall.
Despite ACU owning a distinct height advantage, the Lancers dominated the paint, outscoring the Wildcats 52-22 in the key. CBU also won the fast break battle, scoring 23 in transition to ACU's seven.
California Baptist will return to Riverside next week to prepare for light work as they are slated to play just one game. Southern Utah makes the return trip to California after the Lancers defeated the Thunderbirds to open WAC play in Cedar City in November, 79-66. Saturday's game will tip at 1:00 p.m. in the Dale E. and Sarah Ann Fowler Events Center.
