Four Highlanders Score In Double Figures As Women's Hoops Tops Brown 79-65

Monday, December 29

Ames, IA

3:00 pm

UC Riverside

8-4, 0-0BigWest

Brown

3-8, 0-0Ivy

Team	1	2	F
UC Riverside	49	30	79
Brown	33	32	65

Photo by: Carlos Puma

Four Highlanders Score In Double Figures As Women's Hoops Tops Brown 79-65

12/29/2014 2:10:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Ames, IA—The UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team improved to 8-4 on the season Monday evening with a 79-65 victory over Brown in the first round of the Cyclone Challenge. That win helps the Highlanders continue their best start to a campaign since 1994-95 when they won nine of their first 12 games.

UCR takes on Iowa State in the Championship Game of the Cyclone Challenge on Tuesday, December 30 at 5:30 pm.

UC Riverside and Brown were tied at five with 16:42 to go in the first when the Highlanders went on a 17-6 run giving them a lead they would never relinquish. Simone DeCoud helped the Highlanders take over the game in the early going making her first four shots from the field, including a pair of three-pointers. She finished the night with 18 points.

On the defensive end, UC Riverside kept the Bears at bay forcing 12 miscues in the first 20 minutes of play, but when Brown was able to get into its set offense, it was a different story thanks to guard Sophie Bikofsky. The sophomore made seven of her first 10 shots from the field, all from beyond the arc, to single-handedly keep the Bears in the game. The rest of the team was just six of 15 from the floor in the first half, though, and Brown trailed at the intermission, 49-33

Brittany Crain, fresh off of her third Big West Conference Player of the Week honor of the year, started the game slowly, but finished with 18 points and made four three-pointers.

Annelise Ito picked up the scoring load in the second half scoring 11 of her game-high 19 points after the break. UC Riverside scored the first four points of the second half to give the Highlanders their largest lead of the day at 20 points, 53-33. But the Bears scored 24 of the next 34 points to slice UCR's advantage to six, 63-57.

That was as close as Brown would get, though, as a 9-2 Highlanders run effectively ended the game. UC Riverside clamped down on Bikofsky in the second half holding her to two points and forcing her to miss all four of her shots from the field.

Michelle Curry also reached double figures in scoring for UCR adding 15 points. In all, the Highlanders made 13 of 18 of their three-pointers, and had 23 assists on their 29 made baskets.