Women's Basketball Edged By The Pac-12's Washington State In Overtime, 77-73

Wednesday, December 18

Kennewick, WA

4:00 pm

UC Riverside

4-6

Washington State

6-5

Team	1	2	OT 1	F
UC Riverside	30	36	7	73
Washington State	31	35	11	77

Photo by: Carlos Puma

Women's Basketball Edged By The Pac-12's Washington State In Overtime, 77-73

12/18/2013 6:01:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Kennewick, Washington - The UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team erased a 12-point second-half deficit before sending the game into overtime, but were edged by four points to the Pac-12's Washington State, 77-73, on Wednesday afternoon at the Toyota Center (box score).

Brittany Crain scored a game-high 29 points for the Highlanders (4-6) on 11-of-16 shooting including 5-of-8 from beyond the arc. Simone DeCoud added 15 points for UCR while Kiara Harewood had 12.

Lia Galdaiera scored 26 to lead the Cougars (6-5) while Tia Presley had 24.

In the first half, the Cougs quickly opened with a 5-0 lead, but Harewood scored a pair of buckets, and Crain drained a three to put the Highlanders on top, 7-6.

The teams traded points until UC Riverside turned a 15-15 tie into a 25-16 advantage, thanks to five consecutive points from DeCoud. WSU responded with five straight of its own to cut the lead in half, 25-20, at the 8:26 mark. The Highlanders pushed their margin back to three possessions, 30-22, following a Harewood long ball with 3:10 remaining in the half, but Washington State closed out the period on a 9-0 run to take a 31-30 advantage into the break.

The Cougars continued their hot shooting to open the second half, outscoring UCR 14-5 as the lead grew to 45-35 with 16:21 left in the game. WSU further increased its advantage to 12, 51-39 at 13:08, but Crain and DeCoud both connected on three-pointers to cut the lead in half, and Jamila Williams hit a free throw as the lead was cut to 51-46 two minutes later.

The Cougars again made it a nine-point lead, but the Highlanders continued to press and whittled the lead to just a single point, 62-61 with 3:08 left, capped off by jumpers from Annelise Ito and DeCoud. WSU converted on a layup the next trip down the court, but another jumper from DeCoud again made it a one point game, and after a defense stop, Crain scored a layup to put UCR up 65-64 with 1:01 to go.

UC Riverside used a big defense stop to get the ball back, forcing WSU to foul with 22 seconds to go. DeCoud hit 1-of-2 from the foul line, but on the rebound, UCR fouled WSU sending them to the line, as they converted both to tie the game at 66 with 19 seconds left.

The Highlanders played for the last shot, but DeCoud's attempt was just off the mark as the game entered overtime.

UC Riverside scored first in overtime, but the Cougs rallied for five straight taking a 71-68 lead with 2:18 on the clock. Harewood hit a long ball to tie the score at 71, but Washington State scored 25 seconds later making it 73-71. The Highlanders missed a pair from the foul line on their next trip down, and WSU nailed a jumper with 55 seconds remaining pushing the lead to 75-71.

Forced to foul, UCR sent the Cougars to the charity stripe where they hit one of two. Natasha Hadley's layup with six seconds left made it 76-73, but another 1-of-2 from the foul line put WSU up by four points with just four seconds remaining, effectively sealing the win and ending the game.

Washington State hit 43.4 percent from the floor while holding UC Riverside to 40.5 percent shooting.

UCR now concludes its three-game road swing traveling to another Pac-12 opponent, the Arizona Wildcats, on Saturday, December 21 for a 5 pm PT in Tucson, Arizona.