Los Angeles, CA—The UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team saw its five-game winning streak come to an end on Thursday of last week at Fresno State (
box score/
recap), and then lost a heartbreaker at CSU Bakersfield on Saturday (
box score/
recap). If the Highlanders are going to get back on the winning track this week, they will have to do it in hostile territory as they take a pair of trips to Los Angeles—Wednesday, December 10 at UCLA at 5 pm PT, and Saturday, December 13 at Loyola Marymount at 7 pm.
Brittany Crain continues to rank among the nation's leading scorers, entering the week with the fifth highest scoring average at 26.1 points per game. Simone DeCoud (15.7) and Annelise Ito (10.9) are also scoring in double figures this season as the Highlanders lead the Big West Conference in points per game (76.0), while ranking second in field goal percentage (.413), three-point field goal percentage (.346) and free throw percentage (.730).
UCLA is just 1-4 on the year, but those loses have come to North Carolina, Texas, Nebraska and James Madison. After dropping their first four games of the season, the Bruins beat Cincinnati last Tuesday, 66-58.
Nirra Fields leads three Bruins in double figures, scoring 17.2 points per game while adding 9.0 rebounds, but the UCLA offense as a whole has struggled, making 38.3 percent of its field goal attempts and 29.6 percent from three-point range. Their defense has kept them in games, though, as the opposition is making 37.2 percent of its shots from the floor and 33.3 percent from long distance. The Bruins are also forcing nearly 20 turnovers per game.
The Highlanders are 2-10 all-time against UCLA (
view results). The Bruins have won eight straight over UC Riverside including the two meetings between the clubs since the Highlanders made the move to Division I back in the 2001-02 season.
LMU is 2-5 on the year, most recently dropping a pair of road games at Northern Arizona, 82-64, and Seattle, 62-57. The Lions are basically a five-woman team as Deanna Johnson (13.7 ppg), Sophie Taylor (11.4), Taylor Anderson (11.3), Leslie Lopez-Wood (11.1) and Emily Ben-Jumbo (9.0) account for 86 percent of the teams scoring and have played 75 percent of the team's minutes. Each of LMU's top four scorers averages more than 30 minutes per game.
As a team, the Lions are making 40.1 percent of their shots from the field, but just 26.7 percent from long distance. Opponents have taken 50 more free throw attempts than LMU on the year, and committed 20 fewer turnovers.
The Highlanders are 6-3 all-time against Loyola Marymount (
view results), but the Lions picked up wins in the two most recent meetings between the clubs back in the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons.
