LA VERNE, Calif. – Hope International women's basketball withstood a furious rally from La Verne to squeak out a 64-62 nonconference victory on Friday at the Athletics Pavilion.
The Royals – having led by as many as 18 points – entered the fourth period with a 58-41 cushion. But the Leopards went on a 21-3 run to take a one-point lead on Isabell Gray-Musolff's three-pointer with 2:00 to go in the game.
Trailing 62-61, HIU got the game-winning bucket as Dre Javier nailed a triple with 1:36 to play.
The Royals forced a miss on La Verne's next possession. Gray-Musolff committed a turnover with 40 ticks on the clock and Kaylee Shimoda misfired on a game-winning three-point attempt with two seconds remaining.
HIU escaped with the two-point win to improve to 6-3 on the season.
HIU built the big lead after outscoring the Leopards 23-13 in the third quarter. Nicole Chuang scored 13 of her game-high 19 points in the period, hitting four of her six three-pointers. The guard knocked down her fourth three while getting fouled, and completed the four-point play to give HIU a 54-37 lead with 2:00 to play.
But the Royals missed their first 12 shots in the fourth period to enable the Leopards to begin their comeback. Amira Austin finally broke the spell with a layup, giving HIU a 61-59 lead with 2:11 to go.
Javier finished with nine points, while Austin, Jada Long and Angelina DeLeon chipped in eight apiece. Natalie Acuna scored seven points.
HIU shot 35.8 (24 of 67) percent for the game, making 9 of 29 (31.0%) from three-point range. La Verne shot 34.5 (19 of 55) percent overall.
Gray-Musolff led the Leopards with 18 points. Alyssa Smith ended up with a 17-point, 12-rebound double-double.
The Royals host the HIU Holiday Classic next week, opening the tournament against Grace College (Ind.) on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m.
