THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - On the final day of the CLU Thanksgiving Classic the Cal Lutheran women's basketball team suffered a 77-65 defeat against No. 8 Kean (NJ) in Gilbert Arena on Saturday. In the earlier games La Verne came from behind for a victory over Elmhurst (IL) and No. 15 DePauw (IN) cruised past Redlands.

Box Score: KU 77, CLU 65 - F

The up-tempo Kean team turned the ball over 27 times while CLU committed 25 turnovers of its own.

The Regals trailed by three at the half and after a pair of free throws from Meghan Goodenough to open the second period, they cut their deficit to one. After that, Kean followed with a 15 to one run and separated itself from CLU as the Regals would not cut the deficit to less than 10 the rest of the way.

CLU hit 42.4 percent of its shots in the first half but in the second it made just nine of 31 attempts while Kean finished 50.8 percent from the field with 44 points in the paint.

Erica Whitley led the Regals with 12 points while adding six rebounds, three steals, two assists and two blocks in 23 minutes. She was named to the All-Classic Team.

In the first half CLU trailed by 10 after the first five minutes but battled back and cut the lead to one with less than a minute left in the period. Whitley scored seven of her team-high 12 points in the first half.

Channing Fleischmann finished the game with 11 points for CLU and Brianna Parker just missed out on a double-double as she notched 10 points and nine rebounds. Rachel Heagy played 16 minutes and poured in eight points on 4-for-5 shooting to go along with three rebounds.

Tiffany Patrick was a key inside presence for Kean as she scored 17 points on 6-for-8 shooting and tallied eight rebounds. Naimah Clemons scored 16 points and notched six assists, three steals and five rebounds. Emily Cristaldi was 6-for-11 and totaled 14 points.

In the first game of the day La Verne upended Elmhurst 69-66. A three-pointer from Mayra Duenas of La Verne with 1:40 left in the game put the Leopards up 66-63 and they would not lose that lead en route to their first victory of the season (1-2). ULV's Ashley Paul led all scorers with 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting including four three pointers. Meghan Merklein tallied a double-double for Elmhurst with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

In the second game on Saturday, DePauw ran away with a 63-38 victory over Redlands. Fifteenth-ranked DePauw hit 50.9 percent of its shots and was led by Katie Mathews, who scored 16 points on 7-for-16 shooting. DePauw took over the lead for the last time midway through the first half and would not trail the rest of the way. Redlands was held to a 31.3 percent shooting from the field.

Cal Lutheran (1-3) will be back in action on Dec. 6 when it plays at Chapman at 7 p.m.

CLU Thanksgiving Classic - All-Classic Team
Katie Mathews (DePauw) - MVP
Ellie Pearson (DePauw)
Naimah Clemons (Kean)
Emily Cristaldi (Kean)
Tiffany Patrick (Kean)
Ashley Paul (La Verne)
Megan Ney (Elmhurst)
Monroe Kelsay (Elmhurst)
Erica Whitley (Cal Lutheran)
Courtney Carroll (Redlands)