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The Menlo College women's basketball team successfuly defended its California Pacific Conference playoff title with a 66-58 victory over visiting William Jessup on Tuesday night in Atherton.

The win by the nationally No. 18-ranked Oaks (26-3) capped an undefeated conference campaign and gave Menlo its 14th consecutive victory. The Oaks' Jolise Limcaco led all scorers with 21 points.

The title qualifies Menlo for its second consecutive trip to the NAIA national tournament. The Oaks will travel to Sioux Falls, Iowa, its fourth appearance in eight years at nationals.

The Oaks find out who and where they play Wednesday night at 5 p.m. The national tournament begins next Wednesday.

Menlo put together an impressive defensive effort in the first half, holding William Jessup to just 18 percent from the field on 5-of-27 shooting. The Oaks also forced 10 turnovers and out-rebounded the Warriors, 27-20. Menlo held a 28-14 halftime lead.

Menlo came out of the gate and extended the lead to 17 points thanks to Limcaco's three-pointer. William Jessup, however, shot 50 percent from the field on 16-of-32 shooting, which helped the team to chip away at the 17-point deficit and bring the game to within five points with less than two minutes to play.

Menlo got great minutes out of Limcaco, as well as Amber Lane, who got her first start of the playoff run. Lane played over 37 minutes for the Oaks and chipped in 12 points.

But it all came down to the Menlo defense in the end.

"I feel like we played great defense the whole game," said Menlo coach Shannon Osborne. "They didn't hit any shots in the first and obviously they hit more in the second, shooting 50 percent, but I feel like our defense definitely carried us because we normally score more than 66 points."

Despite coming in under their season average of 78 points a game, Menlo had four of their five starters eclipse double digits. Limcaco led the team with 21, Lane and Laurel Donnenwirth added 12, and Lauren Adamek rounded things out with 10.

— Menlo College Athletics

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