RIVERSIDE, Calif.—The UC Riverside Women's Basketball team fought hard to overcome offensive struggles on Saturday vs. UC Davis, but ultimately fell short in a 67-59 loss at the SRC Arena in the first Big West Conference game of the season.
Both teams started out cold in the first quarter, combining to score a total of nine points through the first five minutes. UCR (6-9) shot 26.7 percent from the field to go into the second quarter trailing 14-10.
Jannon Otto, who won Big West Player of the Week on Monday, continued on her recent hot streak. Of the 23 points UCR scored in the first half, Otto notched eight of them. She led the team in scoring with 22 points, just one short of her career-high, which she tallied last week against New Mexico State.
"She was a warrior and played hard the entire game," head coach John Margaritis said. "She really laid it on the line and came to play."
The Highlanders shot no better than 40 percent from the field, which came in the third quarter, and combined to shoot 30.5 percent overall. However, the team did go 16-for-17 from the free throw line.
"We had problems shooting from the perimeter, which didn't allow us to get a lot of open looks," Margaritis said. "We needed to have a better shooting night to beat Davis."
UCR wouldn't go quietly with UC Davis up by 15 and a little over three minutes left in the third quarter. The team went on an 8-0 run and finished the quarter on a 12-5 run, cutting the lead to 51-43 heading into the fourth quarter.
After hitting just one three-pointer in the first half, Keilanei Cooper finished the game with 12 points, five of which came in the fourth quarter.
She hit a three-pointer to open the fourth quarter that cut the Aggies lead to five points, but UC Davis went on a 16-5 run after that.
That run came on the back of senior forward Morgan Bertsch, who scored nine points in the fourth and 31 overall. During the game, she became just the eighth Big West Women's Player in history to score 2,000 or more points.
UCR's second Big West game will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday at the SRC Arena against Long Beach State.
Tickets are available at
gohighlanders.com/tickets.
