Crain's 22 Points And 11 Rebounds Not Enough In Women's Hoops Loss At UCI, 90-78

Saturday, January 11

Irvine, CA

4:00 pm

UC Riverside

(4-11, 0-2)

UC Irvine

(8-8, 1-1)

Team	1	2	F
UC Riverside	39	39	78
UC Irvine	46	44	90

Photo by: Carlos Puma

Crain's 22 Points And 11 Rebounds Not Enough In Women's Hoops Loss At UCI, 90-78

1/11/2014 3:28:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Irvine, CA - The UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team fell to 0-2 in Big West Conference action Saturday afternoon with a 90-78 loss at UC Irvine. The Highlanders (4-11) were down just seven points at the half, but could not stop a second half Eater (8-8, 1-1) rally in the defeat (box score).

Brittany Crain recorded a double-double of 22 points and 11 rebounds to lead UCR, while Annelise Ito added 18 points and Jamila Williams had 14. Jennifer Tsurumoto scored a career-high 31 points including 21 in the second half to help UC Irvine seal the win.

For the second straight game, UC Riverside outshot its opponent, 51.6 percent to 46.9 percent, but could not pick up the victory. The Anteaters had the advantage from three-point range, making seven long balls for nearly 47 percent, while holding the Highlanders to just 21 percent from beyond the arc. UCI also forced 22 UCR turnovers.

After falling behind 9-4 early in the first half, the Highlanders used a 6-0 run thanks to back-to-back buckets from Williams, and an Ito jumper to go up 10-9 at the 15:16 mark.

UCI countered with 10 straight points to take a 20-10 advantage less than two minutes later. An Ito layup stopped the bleeding, but the Eaters scored four straight to push the lead out to 12.

Simone DeCoud connected on consecutive layups and Natasha Hadley converted a jumper as UC Riverside cut the lead in half, 24-18, with 10 minutes left in the period. The Aneaters' lead fluctuated between five and nine points for the next six minutes until they went up by their largest margin of the half, 46-33, at the 1:59 mark.

Crain scored the final six points of the period as the UCR defense held UCI without a point, entering the break down just seven, 46-39. But UC Irvine came out strong to begin the second half, scoring 12 of the first 15 points to take a 58-42 lead at 14:07.

Over the next three minutes, the Eaters pushed the margin out to 22, 67-45, but the Highlanders rallied for eight straight points cutting the lead to 67-53 with just under nine minutes remaining.

UCI countered with six points of its own as the lead was back to 20, but UC Riverside again made it a 14-point game, 75-61, with just over six minutes remaining in regulation. Try as they might, the Highlanders could not muster a final rally, and a Crain three-pointer with eight seconds left secured the final score, 90-78.

UCR has now dropped seven consecutive games, but they have also lost 10 straight in Big West play dating back to the end of last season.

UC Riverside returns to action hosting UC Davis on Thursday, January 16 for a 7 pm PT tip at the SRC Arena in Riverside.