Santa Barbara
—The UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team opened Big West conference play with a, 93-69, win at home over UC Irvine. Saturday they'll face their first road test in conference when they take on the Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara in a 4 pm PT tip.
Thursday's win was the first Big West conference opening home victory since the 2008-09 season. That season the team went 14-2 in the Big West and played in the WNIT postseason event.
Brittany Crain scored 28 points in the win
— her sixth 20 point plus game of the season. Annelise Ito scored 18 points and matched her season-high with 13 rebounds.
Inara Nyingifa established a new career-high with six assists, as did Clemence Lefebrve, who's five assists were also a career-high.
Thursday night UCR committed a season-low seven turnovers, while recording a season-high 26 assists that moved them inside the top-10 nationally
—8th with 19.1 per game. Five Highlanders logged double figures in setting a new season-high of 93 points in the win. (
box score/
recap)
UC Santa Barbara (4-11, 1-0) is coming off a, 78-67, victory over Cal Poly in their Big West opener. The Gauchos also had five players score in double figures in their win.
Makala Roper's 19 points led the team, as did her 12 turnovers. Taylor Farris scored 14 points to go with four assists, while Chaya Durr had 11 points and 11 rebounds for her first double double of the season.
The Gauchos have won three in a row, and are looking to improve from last year's ninth place finish in conference. They have already doubled their win total from a season ago when they were 2-27.
UCR is 21-25 overall against UC Santa Barbara and have won the last three meetings. (
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