Women's Basketball Hits Road For Games vs. Cal Poly & UC Irvine

RIVERSIDE, Calif.—With six games left to play before the Big West tournament, the UC Riverside Women's Basketball team will play four of them on the road. Two of those are this week. UCR will square-off against Cal Poly (5-17, 2-9) on Thursday and then travel to UC Irvine (16-6, 6-4) on Saturday.

The Highlanders (12-12, 6-4) currently sit tied for fourth place in the conference with UCI, making this week's play all the more important.

UCR and Cal Poly will play each other in back-to-back games after the Highlanders beat the Mustangs 80-66 on Saturday. UCR scored its second most points of the season. Jannon Otto also tallied 30 points and Malou De Kergret scored a season-high 22 points.

UCR and UCI played each other on Jan. 17 at the SRC Arena, with the Highlanders getting a resounding 88-72 win. That game marked the team's highest scoring game of the season and the most points scored in a Big West game this season.

"This is a crucial week for us," head coach John Margaritis said. "We just played Cal Poly, so they know our tendencies. We also cannot take UC Irvine lightly."

TRUSTED THREE
The Highlanders currently have three student-athletes averaging double digits in points: Jannon Otto with 15.6 ppg, while Marina Ewodo is averaging 11.2 and Malou De Kergret is averaging 11.0.

BLOCK PARTY
The Highlanders have 116 blocked shots on the season, with an average of 4.8 per game. Marina Ewodo had 43 of those and is averaging 1.8 blocks per game, which is second in the Big West. Through 24 games, the team has out-blocked opponents 116-42.

OFF THE GLASS
Daphne Gnago is second in the Big West in rebounds per game, averaging 7.7. Jannon Otto is fifth with 6.9 rpg and Marina Ewodo is seventh with 6.6 rpg.

ASSISTING SUCCESS
UCR has out-assisted opponents so far this season. The team is averaging 15.5 assists per game in conference, which is second in the Big West.

KNOCKING 'EM DOWN
The Highlanders lead the Big West in free throw percentage at .813. Jannon Otto leads the conference in free throw percentage at .867 percent. Malou De Kergret is third with .824 percent.

IRON WOMEN
Three student-athletes are in the Top 10 in minutes played during conference (3-4-6): Marina Ewodo (35.8), Jannon Otto (35.7) and Malou De Kergret (35.5).