Riverside–Just three weeks away from the start of the Big West tournament, teams look to solidify their position as well as move up the standings. Thursday night in the SRC Arena at 5 pm PT, the UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team entertains UC Santa Barbara in a matchup of teams tied for third in the standings with identical 7-4 conference records.
Saturday UCR will take the short ride to Fullerton to complete the season series with the Titans at 4 pm.
In the Highlanders' last game, Michelle Curry scored 19 of her career-high tying 24 points in the second half, but the UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team fell, 70-67, to CSUN in overtime Saturday night at the SRC Arena.
Curry has scored in double-digits in four of her last five games. She has 55 points in 70 minutes of play over the last three games–an average of 31.2 points per 40 minutes.
Réjane Vérin posted a 20 point-16 rebound double-double in the loss, her eighth of the year and the third in the last four games. She now has 954 total points at UCR, just 46 shy of becoming the 18th member of the 1,000 point club.
Lauren Holt had 17 points against the Matadors, and knocked down five three-pointers for the second time this season. Holt has connected on 11 of her 18 attempts from long distance over the last three games, a period that has seen her pour in 19.0 per contest.
Head Coach John Margaritis now sits three victories away from becoming just the fourth coach in Big West history to notch 200 wins.
As a team, UCR leads the conference with a plus 3.9 rebounding margin, 18.4 forced turnovers a game, while allowing the second-lowest amount of points with 58.4 per game.
UC Santa Barbara arrives in the Inland Empire, having just picked up a win at Hawai'i, 67-52. In the victory, Drew Edelman scored 22 points to lead three Gauchos in double figures. Edelman averages a team-leading 7.5 rebounds during conference play, and is one three players logging double-digits points at 11.1 a game.
Junior guard Drea Toler tops the team in scoring at 11.4 per contest, and her 4.2 assists per game rank third in conference play.
Sarah Porter rounds out the trio of UCSB players averaging 10 or more a game at 11.0 a night. She has connected on 26 three-pointers versus league competition, third among all players this season.
The Gauchos have made 83 threes versus Big West foes, a figure that ranks second. They are also third in both assists (15.3) and steals per game (8.0) through 11 conference games.
In their first meeting of the year in Santa Barbara, Simone DeCoud scored a game-high 22 points, and Vérin had 15 points, but it wasn't enough to overcome the 24 turnovers committed by the UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team in their, 58-54, loss at the Thunderdome (story).
Cal State Fullerton (4-20, 1-10) will host UC Riverside in their lone game of the week Saturday. The Titans are coming off a, 69-45, loss at home to Cal Poly last Saturday. They have lost seven straight, and scored over 50 points just two times in the midst of their current skid.
Iman Lathan paces Fullerton with 13 points a game, and Jade Vega scores in double figures at 10.1 per contest. Vega also leads the squad on the boards, pulling down 7.9 per Big West game.
The Titans average 11.9 made free-throws a game, more than twice as many as times as their opponents (5.8) during conference play.
In the first meeting of the year between the clubs, Vérin scored 20 points, and Curry added 14 in the UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team's wire-to-wire, 68-45, victory over Cal State Fullerton in the SRC Arena (story).
UC Riverside leads the overall series 27-22, and has won the last three match-ups by average of 33.3 points.
