WALLA WALLA, Wash. - The best quarter of the night was the final one for Whitman College Friday night. Unfortunately the late surge wasn't enough as the Whitties dropped their first game of the season with a 74-64 non-conference women's basketball loss to visiting Cal Lutheran University on the opening night of the Ninth Annual Kim Evanger Raney '02 Memorial Classic in Sherwood Athletics Center.
The defeat leaves Whitman with a 6-1 record while the Regals improved to 2-3.
Early action, nor 4th-quarter action, failed to hint at the 10-point loss.
Alysse Ketner picked up the opening tip from
Casey Poe and rolled in a layup to open the scoring. The Regals were unable to advance past half court on their ensuing possession as
Hailey McDonald picked up the first of her game-high four steals, flipping the turnover into a
Hailey Ann Maeda jumper to give the Whitties a 4-0 lead.
Consecutive buckets from Cal Lutheran tied things up but another Ketner layup pushed Whitman back in front, a short lived advantage after a pair of Regals free throws knotted the affair up at 6-6.
A Maeda jumper provided Whitman with an 8-6 edge, and Ketner would hit the second of a pair of opportunities from the free-throw line to up the lead to three, but that would prove to be the final time the Whitties would be in front.
A 3-pointer from CLU's Jessica Salottolo would tie things up and a Whittie turnover followed by another trey from the Regals put the visitors ahead. By the time the first quarter would end Cal Lutheran would own a 28-17 lead.
Though Whitman out scored the Regals in the second quarter, Cal Lutheran was still able to take a 43-34 advantage into the halftime break behind an opening 20 minutes of 60 percent shooting from the floor.
That nine-point lead ballooned to 27 in the third quarter as the Regals out scored Whitman by a 23-5 margin. Though the Whitties responded with a 25-8 fourth quarter, the deficit proved too large to overcome in the end.
Ketner finished with a team-high 12 points and added six rebounds and three assists. Maeda and Poe tied for the team lead on the glass with seven rebounds. Defensively, McDonald registered a game-high four steals in helping Whitman finish with an 11-8 edge in steals.
Cal Lutheran's Chelsea Jacoby led the Regals with a game-best 22 points, also coming away with seven rebounds.
The Evanger Raney Classic continues Saturday with a 4 p.m. contest between the Regals and Whitworth University, followed by a match-up between the Whitties and Southwestern (Texas) University at 6 p.m.
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