Women's Hoops Advances To Big West Semifinals With 83-65 Win Over 49ers

Tuesday, March 8

Riverside, CA

7:00 PM

UC Riverside

19-11

Long Beach State (Big West Quarterfinals)

8-23

Team	1	2	F
Long Beach State	24	41	65
UC Riverside	37	46	83

Photo by: Gabriel L. Acosta

Women's Hoops Advances To Big West Semifinals With 83-65 Win Over 49ers

3/8/2011 7:57:04 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Box Score - #3 UC Riverside 83, #6 Long Beach State 65

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Riverside, CA - Tre'Shonti Nottingham scored 22 points and Alyssa Morris had 20 as the #3 seeded UC Riverside women's basketball defeated #6 seeded Long Beach State 83-65 on Tuesday evening in the first round of the 2011 ampm Big West Basketball Tournament at the Student Recreation Center.

The Highlanders will move on to the semifinals on Friday, March 11 at Honda Center in Anaheim, CA where they will face #4 seeded UC Davis at 2:30 pm PT. The Aggies beat #5 UC Irvine 72-45 to advance to the semis and #1 Cal Poly upended #8 Cal State Fullerton, 73-70. The lone upset in the first round came when #7 Pacific edged out #2 UC Santa Barbara, 49-45.

The Highlanders benefitted from balanced scoring from their top three scorers in the first half as Tre'Shonti Nottigham scored 13 points while Alyssa Morris and Rhaya Neabors added 10 apiece. UCR hit 6 of 10 from beyond the arc and 11 of 21 from the field while scoring 19 points off of 11 turnovers.

Long Beach State scored the first two baskets of the game and led 8-4 with 3:29 gone in the first, but the Highlanders scored 11 straight points to take an 18-10 lead capped off by a Morris three-pointer at the 11:00 minute mark.

UCR pushed its lead out to 12, 30-18, and closed the first half by scoring seven straight points to take a 13-point lead, 37-24, into the locker room.

UC Riverside scored the first eight points of the second half to go up by 21, and their lead never dipped below 18 points the rest of the way.

The 49ers did everything they could to get back in the game, pressing for much of the final 20 minutes of play, and fouling late to send the Highlanders to the free throw line. The teams combined to shoot 47 free throws after the intermission with UCR connecting on 19 of 26 to hold Long Beach at bay.

Melanie Lisnock scored 14 of her team-high 16 points for the Beach after the break. She was joined in double figures by Courntey Jacob (15) and Ella Clark (10).

The Highlanders set a number of program conference tournament records in the victory including most points (83), free throws (26), free throw attempts (36) and three-point field goal percentage (60.0%).