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California State University at Bakersfield Athletics

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Mark Nessia/Mark Nessia Photography
47
CSU Bakersfield CSUB 2-1
53
Winner UTEP UTEP 2-0
CSU Bakersfield CSUB
2-1
47
Final
53
UTEP UTEP
2-0
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
CSU Bakersfield CSUB 9 12 17 9 47
UTEP UTEP 13 12 9 19 53

Game Recap: Women's Basketball |

Free Throws Give UTEP 53-47 Edge Over Bakersfield



BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – The CSU Bakersfield women's basketball team tallied their first loss of the 2018-19 season after a 56-47 decision at UTEP. The Miners improved to 2-0, 0-0 C-USA while the Roadrunners fell 2-1, 0-0 WAC on the year.
 
"This was a great learning experience for us," said head coach Greg McCall. "We played hard, were aggressive, and solid on defense. But if we're going to be a championship team we need to be more strategic with who we're giving the ball to and when we to look to score."
 
The Miners opened scoring less than 30 seconds into the first quarter with a bucket from Zuzanna Puc. With the score tied at 4-4 and 5:26 left in the first, a UTEP foul at the elbow set Alexxus Gilbert up to capitalize on two free throws. The Roadrunners forced a shot clock violation just before the first media timeout but a 9-3 run to close the first would give the home team a 13-9 lead through the first 10 minutes.
 
An early 5-0 run to start the second quarter would give Bakersfield a 14-13 lead with 9:27 to play. UTEP answered with their own 8-4 run to force a timeout halfway through the period. The Roadrunners were able to stay in the game with 35.7% shooting from the field, but an even 12-12 second quarter put the Miners up 25-21 heading into the locker rooms at the half.
 
CSUB outscored UTEP 17-9 in the third to take a 38-34 lead heading into the final period.
 
The Roadrunners built their largest lead of the contest with 8:07 left in the fourth quarter but second chance points allowed the Miners to keep the deficit at single-digits. With just 3.5 seconds left in the game, Bakersfield had an opportunity to tie the game at 50-50 but a questionable call gave the possession back to UTEP before the Roadrunners could get off a shot. McCall ended up getting ejected from the game after questioning the officials' call. 
 
"The play went fast, but I didn't think she (Gilbert) was anywhere near the sideline for the official to call her out of bounds," said McCall. "I guess it wasn't a reviewable play so in that moment I wanted to show my team that I was going to fight for them. I rather it be me getting ejected than one of my players."
 
Although the Roadrunners put up 10 more shots than the Miners and made one more field goal, UTEP was able to cash in 20 points from the free throw line.
 
Malayasia McHenry recorded her second double-double of the season with a game-high 13 points and 12 rebounds. Freshman Nia Johnson had a career-best eight points and six rebounds in the contest. Gilbert and Vanessa Austin were just shy of finishing the contest in double figures with nine and eight points, respectively.

"My coaching staff did a good job of calling out things they saw tonight," added McCall. "It's still very early in the season, but we need to do a better job at executing down the stretch and limiting our fouls. If you look at what we did offensively, we were the better team."

UP NEXT
CSU Bakersfield women's basketball will return home next week for a Tuesday night clash with Whittier College. The game is set to start at 7 p.m.
 
~GoRunners.com~
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