Redlands Women’s Basketball Slips in 52-60 Loss to Chapman University

Photo credit: Bre O'Dea
Photo credit: Bre O'Dea

On Family Fun Night inside Currier Gym, the University of Redlands women's basketball team held a halftime lead but eventually suffered a tough 52-60 loss to Chapman University in a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) dual on Saturday.

The Bulldogs set the tone early when sophomore Kellis Dack (Vancouver, WA) knocked down a jumper for the first points of the game. The teams traded buckets over the next few minutes, with sophomore forward Camille Mosley (Riverside, CA) following Dack's lead by scoring off of an offensive rebound to gain a 10-7 lead for the home team.

First-year guard Alyssa Downs (South San Francisco, CA) connected on her first three-ball at the 3:11 mark before a Mosley layup closed the quarter for the Maroon and Gray's 15-12 advantage.

The offense began to go through junior guard Cassandra Lacey (Victorville, CA), who scored or assisted on nine out of the 10 points for Redlands in the second stanza. She opened the quarter with three consecutive points to put her team up by a score of 18-12. Although the Panthers pulled to within three, Lacey halted their momentum with a jumper nearly midway through the stanza. She then assisted on the Bulldogs' next bucket, which came off of Dack's hands, before sinking one of her own to push her team to a 25-22 lead heading into the break.

The momentum shifted quickly out of halftime once the Panthers hit a three-pointer to knot the game up at 25-apiece on the first possession. They went on to score the next six points before Downs dropped in a triple to make it 28-31 with 6:39 left in the quarter.

Neither team could convert a field goal over the next several minutes, but Mosley took the lid off the basket with a jumper at the 2:30-mark, which cut the deficit to just two points. Lacey knotted the game up twice down the latter part of the third, but the Panthers retook the lead at 36-34 off a late jumper to set up an exciting final frame.

At the 5:12-mark in the fourth, the Panthers capped off a 7-0 run to match their largest lead of eight with a score of 46-38. Nonetheless, the Bulldogs did not go down without a fight, as Downs drained another trey and Dack scored on two straight Redlands possessions to cut the lead to 45-48 with less than three minutes to go.

Unfortunately, Chapman answered with five points to pull ahead by five once again with less than a minute to go. The Maroon and Gray continued to battle, as Lacey knocked down a pair of free throws and Dack hit a timely three-pointer, which was the first in her Bulldog career, during a six-second span.

Down by four with 35 seconds remaining, the Bulldogs were forced to send the Panthers to the free-throw line, where they closed out the game.
Downs led all scorers with 16 points, to go along with three boards and a steal. Dack scored a career-high of 15 points and added six rebounds. Lacey registered an all-around game with a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double.

Redlands (9-14, 6-8) heads into the final week of the regular season with a pair of road games, beginning with Cal Lutheran University on Wednesday, February 13, at 7 p.m.