The University of Redlands women's basketball team opened the 2009 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference season against last year's champion in Occidental College and came away with a resounding 73-46 win over the Tigers.

After jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the opening minutes, the Bulldogs never looked back en route to the solid victory. Although the Tigers rallied to pull within two points with 16:53 to go in the first half, Redlands responded by creating a 13-point advantage at the seven-minute mark. Occidental then closed the gap to five with 17:40 left in the second half but the Bulldogs blew it open with a 10-run that began off a made jumper by freshman forward Courtney Carroll (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA) at 12:32.

Redlands held the Tigers to a 28.6 shooting percentage and converted 20 points off of Oxy's 19 turnovers.

The Bulldogs gained double figures from four players, including leading scorer sophomore guard Mariah Barbetti-Cort (Ventura, CA) with 14 points to go along with 12 rebounds for her second double-double of the season. Junior guard Ali Bueno (San Jose, CA) and freshman forward Shada Sadeghi (Walnut Creek, CA) both chipped in 13 points, while junior forward Meghan Yetman (Danville, CA) added 10.

Occidental gained 13 points from Dior Williams, with Stephanie Babij coming up with nine.

Redlands (8-3, 1-0 SCIAC) hosts Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges on Saturday at 5 p.m. as part of the first men's-women's doubleheader of the 2009 season. The Bulldog men tip off at 7:30 p.m. in Currier Gym.