Riverside–The UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team continues Big West conference play with a pair of games this week. Thursday, they host Cal Poly at 5 pm PT on ESPN3 in the first game of UCR Men's and Women's Basketball double-header, before heading up the coast to take on UC Santa Barbara on Saturday at 2 pm.
At halftime of Thursday's Men's game vs UC Davis at 8 pm, the 2016 Big West Regular Season Championship Team will be presented their rings.
In the conference opener on Saturday, UCR overcame a 12-point first quarter deficit. They responded by producing a season-high 28 points in the second period to close the gap, before outscoring UC Irvine, 42-23, in the second half en route to, 76-58, home victory (
box score /
recap).
Réjane Vérin led the way with 21 points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists–just shy of a triple-double, but good enough for her third double-double of the year. Verin's 16.5 points, and 7.9 rebounds a game rank third in the conference, while her 4.5 assists per game top the Big West.
Lauren Holt had her third 20 plus point scoring output of the 2016-17 campaign with 20 points to go along with six boards. Holt has scored in double figures in six of her last seven games, and is averaging 16.0 points over her last four games–nearly four points above her season average of 12.2 a game.
Simone DeCoud also averages double figures for the Highlanders with 12.4 points a game. She is averaging of 20.3 points, and has never scored less than 14 points in her six career games against the Mustangs. Cal Poly was on the court when DeCoud established her previous career-high of 27 points in her freshman year.
The Highlanders rank 28th in the nation with 16.9 assists a game–second in the league–and their 36.1 three-point field goal percentage is 40th nationally, which tops the Big West. UCR enters the matchup with a 17-game regular season conference winning streak in hand.
Cal Poly picked up a pair of conference home victories last week over UC Santa Barbara (78-67) and CSUN (79-68), which snapped a four-game skid for the Mustangs.
They are still in search of their first road win of the season, as Cal Poly is 0-6 away from the Mott Center. The Mustangs have suffered losses at the hands of two opponents that the Highlanders defeated, Grand Canyon and CSU Bakersfield.
The Cal Poly offense runs through the Leaupepe twins, Dynn and Lynn. Dynn, the reigning
Big West Player of the Week, is averaged 24.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and six assists per game in Big West play. Lynn is not far behind her sister at 21.5 points, and a team leading 9.5 rebounds per contest.
Forward Hannah Gilbert has chipped in 16.0 points a game during conference play, and is also third on the team in rebounding with 6.5 a game.
The Mustangs have outrebounded their Big West opponents by 12 a game, but have turned the ball over 3.5 times more than their opponents, while allowing them to make 10 threes a game.
The Highlanders took the first meeting last season in a, 93-83, shootout at the SRC Arena, and prevailed in San Luis Obispo, 75-62.
UC Santa Barbara split its two conference opening games last at home, falling to Cal Poly in the opener, as mentioned above, and prevailing against Cal State Fullerton, 56-49, Saturday night.
The Gauchos are led by Coco Miller's 11.3, and Onome Jerigbe's 9.3 points a game. Jerigbe leads the big West in three-point field goal percentage, knocking down 45.9 percent of her attempts on the year.
Drew Edelman is the top rebounder on the squad at 6.9 per night. She had a 12 point-11rebound double-double in UCSB's win over the Titans.
