Women's Basketball Hosts Long Beach State Thursday, And Plays At UC Davis Saturday

Highlanders In Week Fourteen

vs. Long Beach State
Game Notes

Thursday, February 18, 5:00 pm PT

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at UC Davis

Saturday, Febuary 20, 7:00 pm PT

Riverside—The UC Riverside Women's Basketball team will host Long Beach State at 5 pm Thursday, February 18, before traveling to face UC Davis Saturday on February 20 in a 7 pm tip-off.

The team is coming off a pair of road victories last week in which Brittany Crain (39 at CSUF) and Simone DeCoud (24 at Cal Poly) established new career scoring highs.

Senior Akilah Martin, had a career-high eight assists at Cal State Fullerton, Inara Nyingifa matched her career-high with three steals, and Rejane Verin equaled her career best with four blocks against the Titans.

Saturday, they overcame a first half deficit to defeat Cal Poly, 75-62, and claim their11th victory in a row, 10th straight in conference. (box score/recap)

Crain finished with 26 points, eight rebounds and Verin had 14 points, 13 rebounds. DeCoud attacked the basket and hit jumpers in the paint while amassing her career-high 24 points.

Crian was selected as Big West Player of the Week, she averaged 32.5 points while shooting 53.5 (23-of-43) percent from the floor and 61.5 percent (8-of-13) from behind the arc. She also grabbed 14 rebounds in the two wins while helping UCR remain undefeated in the conference.

The Highlanders 20.9 assists per game are 4th nationally and their 35.8 percent connect rate from long distance is 30th. In Big West play, they lead the pack in points per game (84.4), assist per game, and commit the fewest turnovers per game (10.8).

Long Beach State (18-6, 7-3) won, 60-52, over UC Santa Barbara Saturday evening at the Walter Pyramid. Raven Benton and Madison Montgomery scored 15 apiece for the 49ers, who are forcing their opponents into 22.1 turnovers a game in conference play, while committing 17.7 per contest themselves.

In their first meeting, UC Riverside used a, 16-0, second quarter run to take control of the game en route to a, 78-60 victory. (video highlights)

Crain had a season-low 7 points, as the 49ers committed to a box-and-one defense to prevent her from scoring. Verin took full adavantage of the Crain focused defense to record her fourth double double of the season with a career-high 34 points on 14-of-22 shooting, to go along with 10 rebounds. (post-game interview)

The Highlanders lead the overall series, 19-16. (view results)

UC Davis (15-9, 8-3) jumped out to a 13-8 lead in the first meeting of the season. UCR responded with an, 11-0, run and never trailed again. The Highlanders held off a fourth quarter charge from the Aggies to remain undefeated in conference play in an, 80-73, victory. (box score/recap)

UC Davis has won three straight since falling to UCR, and they travel to face Hawai'i Thursday, before welcoming the Highlanders on Saturday at 7 pm.

The Highlanders trail in the overall series, 23-29. (view results)