Riverside—Brittany Crain and Annelise Ito combined for 45 points in an, 80-73, victory over UC Davis. The Highlanders held off a fourth quarter charge from the Aggies to remain undefeated in conference play.
UC Davis (12-9,-5-3) jumped out to a 13-8 lead early in the first. The Highlanders would respond with an 11-0 run.
The run started with a Michelle Curry layup, followed by an Annelise Ito steal and lay-up, then a Curry steal and dish to Ito, who converted a three-point play.The first quarter would end 19-13, with UCR (14-7, 7-0) getting 11 points from Ito in the period.
The Aggies closed the distance to force a tie at 31 all with 1:30 to play in the half. UCR would make a 6-0 run, but a late turnover gave UC Davis the final basket of the half that ended with UCR leading, 38-33.
UC Davis went to the free throw line 18 times in the first half, and made 13 of their attempts. Coming into the game they featured the top two three pointers shooters in the conference, however the team shot just 2-of-12 from distance in the half.
Ito's 15 points, six rebounds led the Highlanders at the half. Crain had eight points, five boards. Morgan Bertsch had 12 points for the Aggies at the intermission.
UCR made a, 21-6, run to open the second half to push the lead to 22 at 61-39 with 3:47 to play in the third. Crain connected on three triples in the run, that was aided by five UC Davis turnovers, which brought her just one made three pointer away from matching the all-time mark.
At the 7:03 mark in the fourth, just after Rejane Verin picked up her fifth foul, the Aggies made a run. Trailing, 68-54, they got back-to-back layups from Bertsch, and a three pointer from Rachel Nagel to force a UCR timeout.
The Highlanders missed on their possession coming out of the timeout, and the Aggies got a lay-up from Alyson Doherty. UCR turned the ball over on their next possession, leading to another layup from Doherty.
Inara Nyingifa made a drive to the basket and converted in the paint to stop the UC Davis momentum. The visitors would get as close as four, but clutch free-throw shooting from the Highlanders, who went 4-4 in the final 17 seconds, helped them secure the, 80-73, victory.
The senior starters narrowly missed out on double doubles, as Crain had 23 points, nine rebounds and Ito poured in 22 points to go with her eight boards.
Crain finished 3 of 8 from three point land, leavinng her just one make away from equaling the all time record, while Ito was just two points shy of her matching her career-high of 24.
Bertsch's 20 points, six rebounds led the Aggies, who also got 15 points from Pele Gianotti.
The UC Riverside Women's Basketball team returns to action Saturday at 4pm against CSUN in the opening game of a double header on ESPN3. The Men's team takes on UC Davis at 7 pm.
