Riverside—After eight games played, a quarter of the way through the season, the UC Riverside Women's basketball Team is 4-4. Last season they were 5-3 after eight games. Saturday they'll look to get back over .500 with a victory over 1-8 CSU Bakersfield at 7pm, in the second game of a men's and women's basketball double header.
UC Riverside has partnered with the Riverside Police Department to collect toys for underprivileged children in the IE this Saturday. Any fan who brings a toy to either the women's or men's game (vs. #28 UNLV at 4 pm) that day will receive a $5 ticket to the men's game, and free admission to the women's game.
The team is 2-0 at home in the friendly confines of the SRC Arena, and 2-4 in away/neutral site games.
UCR ranks
12th in the nation with 19.1 assists per game,
16th in three-point field goal percentage at 39.2, and
31st with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.20.
This season, the Highlanders have gone 2-0 versus the Mountain West conference (Fresno State, San Diego State), and led late in games against nationally ranked Pac 12 teams #21
Cal and #7
Oregon State. They also finished third at the UTEP Thanksgiving Classic in El Paso, TX, where Brittany Crain was named to the All Tournament Team.
Crain ranks
20th in the nation in made three pointers with 24, and leads the
Big West conference in scoring at 17.3 a game. She has also logged team-highs throughout the season of 28 points, 9 assists, and six three-pointers made.
Rejane Verin, who was named
Big West Player of the Week in the opening week of the season (Nov. 16-22), is second the conference in scoring at 16.3, fifth in rebounds with 7.4 per contest and sixth in assists, dishing out 3.5 per game.
Annelise Ito is second in the Big West in assists per game with 5.4, fifth in scoring at 13.4 a game and sixth in rebounding, pulling down 7.1 per contest. She recorded her first double-double of the season, with 12 points, and a season-high 13 rebounds, along with 5 assists in 37 minutes versus San Francisco.
The Highlanders split last week's games, winning at home Tuesday,
80-62, versus Loyola Marymount, and losing,
88-76, at San Francisco Friday night.
Saturday they'll face CSU Bakersfield, who is coming off a, 76-73, loss against Pepperdine. The Roadrunners are 1-8
, and have lost six straight decisions. Three of their loses have come against ranked teams, including a 90-71 defeat to #2 South Carolina on November 28.
Batabe Zempare, who is averaging a double-double at 13.0 points and 10.8 rebounds a game, leads CSU Bakersfield. Zempare's 10.8 boards per contest rank
21st in the nation.
Erika Williams also averages double figures at 11.8 per game and is their top three-point shooter, with 21 made this season.
The Highlanders are 6-3 all-time against the Roadrunners, and have won all four meetings at home. (
view results)
CSU Bakersfield won last year's meeting 66-65, when they converted a three-point play with just five seconds remaining. (
box score/
recap)
