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California State University at Bakersfield Athletics

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David Dennis/All-Star Sports Photography
49
CSU Bakersfield CSUB 4-6,1-1 Big West
55
Winner UC Irvine Irvine 9-3,1-0 Big West
CSU Bakersfield CSUB
4-6,1-1 Big West
49
Final
55
UC Irvine Irvine
9-3,1-0 Big West
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
CSU Bakersfield CSUB 11 11 16 11 49
UC Irvine Irvine 17 13 14 11 55

Game Recap: Women's Basketball | | Written by James Tsitakis-Cecil

CSUB Plays Well Despite Falling to 1-1 in the Big West

IRVINE, Calif. – The Cal State Bakersfield women's basketball team began its Big West slate earlier this week with a thrilling double-overtime victory against UC Riverside. With a quick turnaround into the weekend for an away game at UC Irvine, the Roadrunners played a tough matchup against the Anteaters' no. 9 ranked scoring defense, with Irvine taking the game 55-49 on a late, fourth quarter resurgence to enter the new year.

Notables
  • Defense was prevalent on both sides of the court during the entire game. With Irvine's defense being so great coming into the matchup, the `Runners knew they had to respond in a similar fashion. Defensive rebounds on both sides stopped second chance points from ever becoming a threat. This caused almost as many points to be scored from beyond the three-point line (30 pts) as from the paint (36 pts).
  • As one of the top-ranked mid-major teams and defenses in D1 women's basketball, CSUB played as close and good of a game as it possibly could have against UC Irvine. Posting a 14-4 conference record last season, the Anteaters were hot coming into another season, but Bakersfield faced up to the challenge and flashed many positives despite the narrow loss.
  • Hennie van Schaik continued to grow as one of CSUB's top scorers, especially coming back from injury, posting 12 points in just 28 minutes of play, while Soli Herrera was a big help in the rebounding game with 9 boards.
  • With a 1-1 Big West record heading into the new year, coach Greg McCall will most likely be proud of how his student-athletes have evolved and played despite all of the injuries and setbacks that non-conference play wrought on the team.
Next on the Schedule First Half
  • The game got off to a meandering pace, with neither team doing much for the first few minutes of the opening quarter. However, that all changed with nine straight three-point conversions between the two teams going into the second quarter. The second-chance points were few and far between as both the `Runners and Anteaters were doing a good job of their defensive boards after any missed shots.
  • Bakersfield went on a 7-0 run in the final few minutes of the half to slowly cut away at the deficit, getting within four points of the Irvine lead at one point before the Anteaters started scoring again on the back of some foul trouble from CSUB.
  • The scoring was relatively spread for both teams, with four players tied for the game-leading 6 points by the end of the half. The major part of Irvine's lead came from its rebounding and shooting accuracy.
Second Half
  • Bakersfield came out with a dominant period to get back into the fray, shooting over 58% from the field enroute to a 16-14 third quarter win. Taylor Caldwell, in particular, stepped up despite a quiet first quarter and scored six straight points to open the second half.
  • Coming into the fourth quarter, contested shots from a stout CSUB defense hurt UCI's shooting in the fourth quarter, as midway through the final period the Anteaters had not even scored a single point, allowing the `Runners to take their first lead since far earlier in the game.
  • Irvine experienced some foul trouble that allowed Bakersfield to retain the lead for a while before CSUB responded in kind, sending the Anteaters to the charity stripe a few times in the final minute to pull UCI ahead.
  • Irvine shored up the defense and did not allow a single CSUB two-pointer for the final four minutes of the game, stonewalling a previously sharp fourth quarter effort from the `Runners. Despite shooting just 27.3% from the field during the final period, UCI was able to outlast Bakersfield.
~GoRunners.com~
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