Riverside—The Big West Regular Season Champion UC Riverside Women's Basketball team (21-7, 14-0) concludes the regular season this week with a rematch of the season opener at UC Irvine Thursday at 5:30 pm, and a home match up against Cal State Fullerton Saturday on senior night at 5 pm.
This season's title is the first the since 2006-07, when the team won 21 games and the Big West tournament as well as played in the NCAA tournament. At 14-0, the Highlanders can match the 2001-02 UC Santa Barbara Gauchos' perfect 16-0 regular season with a pair of victories this week.
UCR's RPI has moved up to 48, the highest of the season, and were named
honorable mention for NCAA team of the week.
ESPN's bracketology, now projects the Highlanders as a 14 seed in the NCAA tournament and matched up with the 3 seeded Stanford Cardinal in Stanford.
Saturday night the team overcame a deficit in the first half and foul trouble in the second to defeat Hawai'i,
81-77, and earn the second Big West regular season title in the program's history.
Senior Brittany Crain led the scoring attack with her second straight 21 point game and turned in a solid defensive effort in picking up four steals. Her 21.7 points per game average ranks
12th in the nation.
Rejane Verin recorded her fifth double in the last six games with 19 points, 11 rebounds, while leading the team with five assists and was named conference
Player of the Week. Her 11 double doubles on the season place her in a tie for
39th in the country.
UC Irvine (4-24, 1-13) is coming off a pair of defeats on the road last week at UC Santa Barbara, 66-37, and Long Beach State, 67-49.
The Anteaters have lost eight in a row and been held below 40 points on three occasions in Big West play, however their highest scoring output came in a loss to the Highlanders in their first meeting back on January 7, 93-69. (
box score/
recap)
They are led by Mokun Fajemisin' s 8.9 points, 7.5 rebounds per game, while Shereen Sutherland pulls down 5.0 boards a game. Raelyn Cheung-Sutton chips in 8.0 points a game and her 5.3 assists per game are tied for 38th nationally.
In the first meeting, UCR got 28 points from senior Brittany Crain that led five players in double figures in a, 93-69, win over UC Irvine for the first win in the opening game of conference play since the 2010-11 season.
UCR leads the overall series 33-17. (
view results)
Cal State Fullerton (3-25, 1-13) picked up their first win in Big West competition on February 20, 66-53 over UC Irvine. The Titans host CSUN on Thursday night before visiting the Highlanders on Saturday.
In the first meeting of the season on February 11th, the Highlanders broke their previously established record for margin of victory in a road win (30 at UCSB, 1/9/16) with a, 90-43, rout of the Titans.
It was a historic night for Brittany Crain, who become UCR's all-time leader in three point field goals, moved into second place on the all-time scoring list, established a new career-high with 39 points and also connected on a career-high seven triples.
The Highlanders lead the overall series, 25-22. (
view results)
