Riverside—The UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team led by as many as 17 points in the second half Saturday evening, but the Washington Huskies stormed back to take the lead with 10 seconds remaining, and held on for the 74-71 victory. UCR had two chances to tie the game, the last of which came on a potential buzzer-beater of the hands of Michelle Curry, but the shot left her grip just after the game clock expired.
Trailing 14-13 with 13:37 to go in the first, the Highlanders scored 11 of the next 13 points to build an eight-point lead, 24-16. Four different players scored during the run, led by Michelle Curry's five.
It was still an eight-point lead with less than five minutes remaining in the first, when Simone DeCoud and Dynese Adams drained back-to-back three-pointers to give the Highlanders their largest lead of the half at 14.
It was a 12-point lead at the break for UCR, as they transformed 14 Washington turnovers into 18 points while committing just six miscues of their own. Annelise Ito led all scorers with 12 points on six of eight shooting, and Curry added 10. As a team the Highlanders made 52.9 percent of their shots from the field including 5 of 11 from three-point range.
UC Riverside got quite a scare with 1:54 to go in the first when Simone DeCoud took a tumble under the Highlanders basket, and came up grabbing her left knee. She sat for the remainder of the half, but was cleared to start in the second.
It was more of the same early in the second, as the Highlanders extended their lead to 17, 53-36, with 15:09 on the clock, but that's when UCR hit a cold spell, and the Huskies began to make their move.
A 12-0 run over a three-minute stretch cut the Highlanders' advantage to five, 53-48, with 12:16 to go. An Ito jumper ended the run, and the teams exchanged baskets over the next four minutes, but a mini 7-1 Washington run tied the game at 60 with 7:07 remaining.
Over the next six minutes, the Highlanders would bend, but not break, as the Huskies tied the game on four more occasions, the last of which came with 68 ticks remaining. UC Riverside misfired on its next offensive possession, and the nation's second leading scorer, Kelsey Plum, drained the go-ahead three-pointer with 10 seconds to go to make it 74-71 Washington.
UCR immediately inbounded the ball, and DeCoud launched a three to tie with two seconds remaining. Her shot was off the mark, but the Huskies were whistled for a foul, giving UC Riverside the chance to tie. Unfortunately, DeCoud missed the first two shots, forcing her to intentionally miss the third. The teams battled for the rebound, and the ball bounced out of bounds off the Huskies with .8 seconds to go.
With one last shot to tie, the Highlanders found Curry on the inbounds play. She double-clutched ever so slightly to juke a defender, and her three-pointer dropped through the net as the buzzer sounded. The officiating crew gathered around the instant replay screen for several minutes, timing the final possession with a stop watch several times, before finally waving off the shot.
Plum led all scorers with 21 points while Ito paced UC Riverside with 20. The Highlanders cooled off from the field in the second half making just 38.7 percent of their shots from the field and two of seven from long distance. The Huskies, meanwhile, heated up from the floor making 51.9 percent of their shots including half of their eight shots from beyond the arc.
But the line on the stat sheet that benefited Washington the most was the free throw line where they made 19 of 24 shots while the Highlanders missed six of 10.
The Highlanders remain at home next week with a Tuesday, December 23 meeting with San Diego State. Tip at the SRC Arena is slated for 2 pm PT.
