Picture by Rachael Dela Cruz

LA VERNE, CA — Clarissa Perez went off from beyond the arc, Monica Garcia Silva notched her seventh double-double of the season, and the University of La Verne women's basketball team rolled on their way to an 80-64 win over the Occidental College Tigers Wednesday night in The Tents.

Season Impact

With the win, the Leopards get to double-digit wins for the first time since the 2013-14 season, at 10-8 overall. More importantly, La Verne gets a key SCIAC win to improve to 5-5 in conference play. The Leopards will have to get it done on the road if they want a berth in the conference tournament with five of their six remaining SCIAC games at opponents' venues. La Verne is 3-1 on the road this season.

La Verne is in a three-way tie for fourth place in the conference with Redlands and Cal Lutheran.

Occidental falls to 7-11 overall and 1-8 in SCIAC play.

Stat Leaders

Perez got to work quick going 6-8 from three-point range in the first quarter with her last bucket putting La Verne up 26-13. Perez led all players with a season-high 27 points, 22 of them in the first quarter alone. The guard added seven rebounds all on the defensive end, dished three assists, and grabbed one steal.

Garcia Silva finished with 15 points and grabbed 11 points. The Los Angeles native leads the SCIAC with 18.6 points per game and ranks second with 9.6 rebounds per game. 

On the defensive end, Brittany McDaniel racked up four blocks improving her per game average to 2.9 blocks per game, tied for first in the SCIAC. Her season total of 63 blocks is also tied for first in the conference.

Destinee Garr finished with six rebounds and Maggie Lamas added five boards and five points. Thirteen Leopards scored in the win.

Alyssa Ramlochan led the Tigers with 17 points

Next Game

The Leopards travel down the road to face the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens this Saturday at 5 p.m. The Sagehens narrowly defeated the Leopards earlier this year 80-77 in overtime.