Riverside—The UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team plays its final home game of 2016 Saturday, December 10 at 5 pm versus Seattle University. The Highlanders will enter the weekend match-up with final exams completed, and rested after a 10-day break between games.
Following Saturday night's game, UCR will play six straight road games over the final three weeks of the year.
UC Riverside snapped a three-game skid with a, 77-64, victory over visiting Grand Canyon last Tuesday night.
Riverside native, and North High School alum Simone DeCoud scored seven points, and became the 17th player in the history of the program to join the
1,000 point club.
"It's not a coincidence that UCR Women's Basketball has gotten better every year since her arrival.", said Coach Margaritis of DeCoud. "She's arguably the best point guard to play here, and her positive influence is not only effecting our team, but also our community. We look forward to her scoring a lot more points for us throughout the season.", he added.
Réjane Vérin led the way with 25 points and nine rebounds in the victory. She now ranks second in the
Big West at 17.4 points a game, and still leads the league with 5.0 assists per contest.
Junior Michelle Curry came off the bench to score 17 second half points, which included 11 straight over a three-minute span that saw her connect on her first two attempts of the season from long distance. Curry also dished out a game-high eight assists (
box score /
recap).
Clémence Lefebvre, who tallied a season-high 13 points last game, is the most-efficient shooter in the conference at 57.7 percent from the field.
The Highlanders rank
23rd in the country with a 1.28 assist to turnover ratio, and their 18.4 helpers per game are tied with Duke for
25th nationally. On the defensive end, they have allowed a league-low 61.4 points per game through seven games.
Seattle U split its two weekend games against the Montana schools. They picked up their second win of the season, and snapped a four-game skid with a, 60-44, victory at Montana on Friday, before falling at home to Montana State, 75-67, on Sunday.
The Redhawks' first victory of the season came in their third game of the season at home against Big West foe UC Santa Barbara, 58-53.
Senior guard Kaylee Best's 30 made three-pointers are ninth in the NCAA, while her 84 attempts rank fourth overall. She averages a team-leading 17.3 points a game, and has a team-best 21 assists through nine games played.
Alexis Montgomery is the Hawks leading rebounder (7.0/g), second in scoring (13.7/g), and averaging 16.5 points over their last two games.
Seattle U has hoisted from long distance on 37 percent (206-554) of their shot attempts, and committed 166 turnovers to 108 total assists for a -1.77 assist-to-turnover ratio.
In last year's battle with the Redhawks in Seattle, the Highlanders got 27 points from Verin and 21 from DeCoud to lead five players in double figures in the 92-70 victory (
box score /
recap)
