Riverside, CA—The UC Riverside Women's Basketball team takes on UC Davis Thursday, February 4 at 7 pm in a matchup of teams with two of the best records in the Big West conference.
UCR improved its record to 13-7, 6-0 in conference Thursday with a, 93-83, win over visiting Cal Poly.
(box score/
recap)
Brittany Crain surpassed the 2,000-point mark for her career, scoring 27 points, to go along with four rebounds and a season-high four steals in the victory. She joins Donna Hammond Mares and Kemie Nkele in accomplishing the feat at UCR, and is the seventh Big West player to do so.
Crain is averaging 19.8 points a game this season, which ranks 31st in the nation, and with 10 games remaining in conference play she is on pace to become the program's all-time leading scorer (Hammond Mares-2,192). She is also just four made three-pointers away from matching the career mark set by Cassandra Reeves (212).
Réjane Vérin nearly logged the program's first triple double with 13 points, 14 rebounds, and eight assists in Thursday's win.
The Highlanders have just eight available players for the remainder of the season, having lost Jazzmeen Williams and starter Clémence Lefebrve both to knee injuries. Michelle Curry has stepped in to help fill the void, averaging 14.7 points and 4.7 rebounds over the last three games.
As a team, UCR's ranks
5th in the nation in assists per game with 19.8, and is
30th in three-point field goal percentage at 35.5.
UC Davis (12-8, 5-2) defeated UCSB at home Saturday, 80-51. In the win, the Aggies shot 9-of-17 from three-point range. Pele Gianotti led the scoring attack with 18 points, connecting on 4-of-7 from deep. Celia Marfone also scored in double figures with 17 points and shot 2-of-3 from long distance in the victory.
Marfone (50.0) and Gianotti (41.3) are the top two in the conference in three-point shooting percentage.
Alyson Doherty leads the team in rebounding, averaging 7.0 a game in conference play, while three of her teammates average 4.6 or more boards per contest. Dani Nafekh directs the offense for UC Davis; she hands out 5.0 assists per Big West game—ranking second in the conference.
The Aggies were alone in second place before being knocked off by the Long Beach State last week, now they are in third behind the Beach and UCR.
The Highlanders trail in the overall series, 22-29 (
view results). The teams split last season's series, with each winning at home, where UC Davis won the first match-up 70-56. (
box score/
recap)
UC Riverside prevailed, 61-56, in last season's home finale on March 5, 2015, when Annelise Ito scored 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds, earning her
Big West Player of the Week honors. (
box score/
recap)
CSUN (5-16, 3-4) is coming off a pair of wins over UC Irvine (83-64), and Cal State Fullerton (79-52).
The Matadors have won three in a row and bring in the reigning Big West Player of the Week in Channon Fluker, who averaged 27 points, 13.5 rebounds in last week's wins. CSUN plays at Long Beach State Thursday night before visiting the Highlanders in an ESPN3 televised match-up Saturday at 4 pm.
UCR is 32-30 overall against CSUN and the teams split last season's series. (
view results)
