IRVINE, Calif. - First place never felt so good for the Golden Eagles.
 
The Concordia University Irvine women's basketball team improved to 9-1 in conference play with an 83-74 home win over Point Loma Nazarene University on Saturday.
 
It's the seventh straight victory for CUI. By beating Point Loma on Homecoming Weekend, this completed the first go-round of league matchups this week with every team in the PacWest.
 
Jasmine Rachal led all players with both 21 assists and six assists.  Teagan Thurman contributed 19 points and a career-high six steals while Katie Timmerman added a dozen points.
 
Rachal canned a pair of treys in the first quarter to help set the tone for the Golden Eagles.  The Brea Olinda High School alum drained a three-pointer in the final seconds of the period to give CUI a 19-16 lead as both teams regrouped for the second stanza.
 
Maggie Teven gave the home team a big lift in the second quarter with a couple key plays including a layup in the paint. Thurman also was a force defensively during that stretch and forced a couple steals when she wasn't attacking the rim on offense.
 
Stephanie Lee, Rachal's former high school teammate, then joined the fray with two triples in the third quarter to help widen CUI's advantage. The lead would grow to as many as 16 in the second half, with four different players hitting at least one shot from downtown.

Camryn Kiernan even went a perfect 3-for-3 from behind the arc for nine key points. A big trey by Kiernan in the fourth quarter in front of her bench solidified CUI's grasp on the game.

CUI would cruise from there to provide a win for the visiting alumni in the arena taking part in Homecoming Weekend.  With APU not playing on Saturday, CUI moved ahead of the Cougars for sole possession of first place in the PacWest.  Both teams have just one loss and the rematch will be on Senior Day in the last regular season game of the year.

"It's really exciting," said Lee, when asked about the win streak and the team's climb to the top of the PacWest standings. "It's definitely been one of our goals since the beginning of the season and we definitely want to continue our winning streak and play our best every game."

"We had a big pep talk at halftime and we were just trying to take what we talked about at halftime and apply it to the game," added Lee. "We had a lot of players come off the bench, hustle and make great plays and it just shows that our bench is deep and we have a lot of players that can play well to help the team."

The Golden Eagles start their second time through the conference schedule with a two-game road trip to Northern California in a few days.  Head coach Christine Collins-Kiernan and her group visit Academy of Art on Thursday, Jan. 19 before facing Dominican in San Rafael, Calif. on Saturday.

CLICK HERE for the updated CUI women's basketball schedule