The women's basketball team lost two games of a back-to-back, on Thursday evening and Friday morning, to two ranked opponents. On Thursday they fell 96-62 to No. 10 Concordia University-Irvine (NAIA Division I) and they opened up the conference season with an 82-67 loss to No. 13 Menlo College (NAIA Division II).
In the first game of the back-to-back the Golden Eagles battled Concordia, down by only nine points midway through the second half. La Sierra stayed close throughout the first half, cutting the lead to 41-33 on a steal and bucket by Tina Fantroy at the halftime buzzer. Concordia extended their lead to 49-35 in the opening minutes of the second half, but the Golden Eagles fought back to cut the lead under double-digits (51-42) with 12:40 to play.
But over the next six and a half minutes, Concordia used their size advantage and athleticism to put together a 27-6 run, taking control of the game and cruising to victory.
In the loss, Tina Fantroy notched a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds, including three steals and three assists. Afolake Akingba scored 10 points, while Kristen Brummett added nine points.
In a rare Friday morning start time, La Sierra played host to No. 13 Menlo College in their Cal Pac opener. The Oaks are the defending conference champions who haven't lost a conference game in over two seasons.
The game was a back-and-forth affair with numerous tie scores and lead changes over the first 10 minutes. Over the next five minutes, Menlo held a slight five point advantage, prior to closing out the half with a 6-0 run to take a 40-28 lead into the half.
The Oaks quickly extended their lead to 56-32 in the opening minutes of the second half. But over the next five minutes, La Sierra went on a 22-9 run, cutting the lead to 65-54, but that would be as close as they would get on this afternoon.
Kristin Brummett led the team in scoring with 17 points. Faith Fantroy added 16 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals. Tina Fantroy finished with 11 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals. And Afolake Akingba notched 10 points and three rebounds.
The two losses drop the Golden Eagles to 4-11 on the season (0-1 in Cal Pac play). They will be out of action until next Saturday night (January 17) when they host Pacific Union College, in a Cal Pac match-up, starting at 6:00pm.
