Offense Struggles As Women's Basketball Falls, 71-43, At Cal Poly

Thursday, January 12

San Luis Obispo

7:00 pm

University of California, Riverside

2-14 (0-5BWC)

Cal Poly

6-9 (3-0BWC)

Team	1	2	F
UC Riverside	19	24	43
Cal Poly	34	37	71

Photo by: Gabriel L. Acosta

Offense Struggles As Women's Basketball Falls, 71-43, At Cal Poly

1/12/2012 6:26:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Box Score - Cal Poly 71, UC Riverside 43

San Luis Obispo, CA - The UC Riverside women's basketball team dropped its seventh straight game, and fifth consecutive in Big West play, 71-43 at Cal Poly on Thursday evening at Mott Gym.

UC Riverside suited up just eight players at tip time due to various injuries, and fall to 2-14 overall and 0-5 in league play. The Mustangs, led by the league's offensive leader in scoring and rebounding, Kristina Santiago, improve to 6-9 overall and 3-0 in the conference.

Santiago ended up leading all players with 24 points on 12-of-18 shooting. UCR's Dynese Adams and Natasha Hadley each scored 13 points for the Highlanders.

Both teams were cold to start the game, as Cal Poly scored the only bucket within the first three minutes of play. The Highlanders finally got on board at the 16:18 mark as Hadley connected on a jumper to make it 4-2.

The Mustangs scored six straight points within the next two minutes, but the Highlanders closed the gap to five, 10-5, after a Jazzmin Lewis free throw with 11:45 left in the half.

Cal Poly then went on an 8-0 run, but UCR countered by scoring five of the next seven points on a Taylor Wallace three-pointer and an Adams jumper to make it a 20-10 ball game.

The scoring rallies' continued as the Mustangs put up six straight as their lead peaked at 16 points on two occasions, the last at 28-12 with 3:40 remaining in the half. UCR made a final push of the half, scoring five consecutive on another Adams jumper and a Hadley three-point play at the 2:49 mark to make it an 11-point game, 28-17.

But the Mustangs scored six of the final eight points of the half as they entered the break leading 34-19. Cal Poly hit 40.0 percent (16-40) of their field goals in the period, but were just 1-of-10 from three-point range. The Highlanders were just 8-for-33 (24.4 percent) from the field in the half.

UCR got as close as 13 points after a little over five minutes gone by in the second half, but Cal Poly brought its lead above 20 just two minutes later, and went up by 30, 57-27, at the 10:45 mark.

The Mustangs then went up by as much as 36 points on two occasions, but the Highlanders whittled the lead down to 28 to conclude the game.

UCR increased its shooting in the second period, hitting 34.6 percent (9-26) of its field goals for a 28.8 percent average for the game. Cal Poly forced 24 UCR turnovers, though, and scored 19 points off those miscues. The Mustangs also had 40 points in the paint compared to just eight for the Highlanders.

The 28-point loss is the largest in a Big West Conference game since the Mustangs defeated UCR by 34 points, 87-53, on December 29, 2005.

UC Riverside now concludes their Central Coast trip with a 2:00 pm meeting at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, January 14 in Santa Barbara, CA.