RIVERSIDE, Calif.
- The CSUB women's basketball team entered Wednesday night's contest against
the UC Riverside Highlanders winners of seven of its last eight. But the
Roadrunners ran into an equally hot team at the UCR
Student Center
and fell to the Highlanders, 79-69, who have now won nine straight contests and
remain undefeated at home at 8-0.
The win moves the Highlanders, who are 9-1 in Big West play,
to 14-9 on the year while the Roadrunners fall to 15-9. The 79 points UC
Riverside scored was a season-high for the team. The Highlanders led
wire-to-wire and the game was never tied.
Junior Phynique Allen (San Diego/Eastern Washington) led the
?Runners with 17 points. Senior Krista Arase (Monterey Park/Keppel HS) and
junior Katie Williams (Las Vegas/Reedley College) each chipped in 13 points
while senior Christine Kepenekian (Burbank HS) added 12. The ?Runners shot 43.6
percent (24-for-55) from the field and were 5-for-16 (31.3 percent) from beyond
the arc.
Riverside would
jump out early, building a 10 point lead just over seven minutes into the
contest. That lead would grow to 12 less than four minutes later as the
?Runners could not seem to get a shot to fall. But CSUB kept battling and with
just over eight minutes left down by 10, the ?Runners went on an 8-0 run to
close within two, 23-21.
A Nikki Leon layup with 3:54 remaining in the half kept the
Riverside advantage at two points before the Highlanders closed the half on a
12-3 run with an Arase three pointer accounting for the Roadrunner offense in the
closing minutes. UCR led 43-32 at the break with Kemie Nkele leading the way
with 12 points and eight rebounds.
Midway through the second half, the Highlanders extended
their lead to 14 points before Williams knocked down two free throws at 9:36 to bring the score to 59-47. Riverside
would respond with a quick 5-0 run of its own to take a 17 point lead, 64-47,
with 7:51 remaining.
CSUB would get the lead back to single digits with just over
a minute remaining,74-67, as Tiffany Belt (Bakersfield/West HS) hit a three.
But UC Riverside managed to run out the clock and secured its 14th win of the
season.
UCR shot 54.7 percent (29-for-53) from the field and
outrebounded the ?Runners, 39-27. Kemie Nkele finished with 22 points, 13
rebounds, six assists and five blocks to lead the Highlanders.
The ?Runners will take a six day break before returning to
the Icardo Center on Tuesday, Feb. 17 to face UT-Pan American. CSUB will be
wearing pink jerseys in support of breast cancer awareness as part of the
Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Pink Zone promotion.
