Career-High 37 From Crain Helps UCR Overcome Second Half Deficit In 90-80 OT Win At SCU

Sunday, November 17

Santa Clara, CA

2:00 pm

UC Riverside

2-2

Santa Clara

0-3

Team	1	2	OT 1	F
UC Riverside	34	40	16	90
Santa Clara	42	32	6	80

Photo by: Gabriel L. Acosta

Career-High 37 From Crain Helps UCR Overcome Second Half Deficit In 90-80 OT Win At SCU

11/17/2013 4:11:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Santa Clara, CA—The UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team evened its record to 2-2 on the season with a come-from-behind, 90-80 overtime victory at Santa Clara on Sunday afternoon. Brittany Crain scored a career-high 37 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field and 16-of-20 from the foul line as the Highlanders overcame an eight-point second-half deficit to earn the victory. (Box Score).

The Broncos (0-3) led 42-34 at the half, but a 22-6 run by the Highlanders to open the second period put the blue and gold on top by 10. Santa Clara eventually rallied as the teams' headed into overtime, but in the extra stanza, it was all UCR as they outscored SCU 16-6 for the win.

Simone DeCoud added a career-high 20 points for the Highlanders as Natasha Hadley added 14 in a foul-shortened 30 minutes.

It was a tale of two halves in the first two periods, as SCU hit 51.9 percent from the floor in the first and 38.2 in the second, while UCR hit 32.0 percent in the first and 50.0 percent in the second.

Despite being out shot 66.7 percent to 37.5 percent in the opening minutes of play, however, UCR led 9-8 at the 16:13 mark following a Crain three-point play. The Broncos then rallied scoring seven of the next nine points to lead by four, 15-11, but the Highlanders tied the game at 17 following a pair of Crain free throws at the 11:06 mark.

Santa Clara used another run, outscoring UCR 10-1 over the next four minutes to open up its largest lead of the half, 27-18. UC Riverside countered and eventually whittled the lead down to four, 29-24, after a three-pointer from Crain and a pair of free throws from DeCoud with five and a half to go in the period.

SCU pushed its lead back to eight, 35-27, with 3:08 to go, but the Highlanders cut it down to three, 37-34, capped off by back-to-back jumpers from Kiara Harewood and Hadley. The Broncos had the last say in the half, however, scoring the final five points to enter the break up 42-34.

Crain scored 17 of UCR's 34 points in the period, hitting 4-of-5 from the floor compared to 4-of-20 combined for the rest of the squad.

Whatever Head Coach John Margaritis said to the team at the half proved effective, as UC Riverside opened up the second period outscoring SCU 22-6, taking a 58-48 lead with 13:45 to play. DeCoud scored six straight during that span to spark the Highlanders, as they scored 13 straight at the end of the run.

The Highlanders led by as many as 10 points on three more occasions, the last at 64-54, but the Broncos slowly chipped away at the margin and made it a single-possession game, 71-68, with a little over three minutes remaining.

A minute later, it was 71-70 following a SCU layup, but DeCoud connected on a jumper on the next trip down to put UCR back up by three with 1:39 to go. Another Broncos basket made it one-point game, 73-72 with 1:22 left, but DeCoud hit 1-of-2 from the free throw line with 27 seconds remaining to make it 74-72.

A Highlanders foul with 12 seconds left put Santa Clara at the line, and Vanessa Leo sank both free throws to tie the game at 74 with 12.3 second to go. DeCoud missed a floater in the lane and Harewood's put back was just off the mark as the game entered overtime tied at 74.

It was all UC Riverside in the first three minutes of OT, however, as the team scored nine straight while holding the Broncos to 0-6 from the floor to take an 83-74 lead. The Highlanders defense held Santa Clara to just 8.3 percent (1-of-12) in the OT period, while hitting 3-of-4 from the floor and 10-of-12 from the foul line.

Marie Bertholdt scored 18 points to lead SCU while Nici Gilday and Leo both added 16.

UC Riverside now prepares for the Great Alaska Shootout slated for November 26 and 27 in Anchorage, Alaska. The Highlanders face off against the host Seawolves in the first game and will play either Nicholls or Georgetown in the second game.