Strong Second Half Lifts Women's Basketball Past Louisiana, 55-37

Monday, December 17

Lafayette, LA

5:00 pm

UC Riverside

6-3

Louisiana

5-5

Team	1	2	F
UC Riverside	24	31	55
Louisiana	23	14	37

Photo by: Gabriel L. Acosta

Strong Second Half Lifts Women's Basketball Past Louisiana, 55-37

12/17/2012 4:53:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Box Score - UC Riverside 55, Louisiana 37

Lafayette, LA - The UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team (6-3) earned a defensive-minded 55-37 victory Monday evening at the University of Louisiana Lafayette (5-5), capitalizing on a 31-14 scoring effort in the second period.

It was still a close game midway through the second half, though, with UCR leading by just four, 38-34, with 10:52 left in the game. The offense kicked into gear at that point, as the Highlanders scored the next 15 straight and 17 of 20 to come away with the win.

UCR (6-3) held the Ragin' Cajuns to 25.5 percent shooting from the field, including just 16.7 percent in the second half. The Highlanders also forced 20 turnovers, scoring 25 points off those miscues, while outrebounding ULL 42-37. The 37 points scored by Louisiana is also a season-low.

Akilah Martin scored a career-high 15 points to lead UCR, while Tre'Shonti Nottingham also added 15, and Brittany Crain chiped in with 14.

A 7-0 run to close out the first half gave the Highlanders a 24-23 lead into the break, countering a 9-2 Louisiana run made minutes before. With UCR on top 15-14 after consecutive layups from Nottingham and Martin, the Ragin' Cajuns pushed their lead to the largest of the half, 23-17, with 2:02 remaining.

A pair of free throws from Nottingham, another Martin layup, and a three-pointer from Kiara Harewood with 11 seconds to go gave the Highlanders the advantage into the break.

Two quick three-pointers by UC Riverside made it a 30-23 game after just over a minute of action into the second period. Meanwhile, the Highlanders defense kicked in as Louisiana was held without a bucket for three and a half minutes.

UCR would go on to score 12 of the first 16 points of the half as the advantage grew to 36-27, capped off by a Nottingham fastbreak layup at the 12:51 mark.

However, the Cajuns closed the gap to four, 38-34, setting up the offensive outburst and defensive effort by the Highlanders to conclude the game.

For the game, UC Riverside shot 42.0 percent from the floor including hitting 5-of-11 from downtown.

Next up for the Highlanders is a Thursday, December 20 matchup at nationall ranked Oklahoma at 5 pm PT in Norman, OK.