Women's Basketball Looks for Fourth Straight Win vs. Cal State Fullerton

RIVERSIDE, Calif.—The UC Riverside Women's Basketball team will look for its fourth straight win when it plays Cal State Fullerton on Thursday at the SRC Arena.

The Highlanders (10-11, 4-3) picked up their third straight victory on Saturday with a 73-60 win over UCSB. It marked the team's third straight win and fourth conference win.

"I just think we are learning to compete a little bit better," head coach John Margaritis said after the game. "We knew Santa Barbara was going to play hard for 40 minutes and challenge us. Everyone competed and we need to be able to do that consistently. We have really started to."

UCR had a solid offensive attack, led by Jannon Otto, who finished the game with 26 points and nine rebounds. Thanks to that performance and a 22-point scoring effort against Hawaii earlier in the week, she went on to win her second Big West Conference Player of the Week award on Monday.

SCOUTING THE TITANS
CSUF suffered a pair of losses last week, starting with a 74-44 loss to CSUN on Thursday and then a close 59-53 loss to Long Beach State on Saturday. The standout in both games was Carolyn Gill, who scored 13 points in each game.

OTTO-MATIC
Otto is averaging 19.3 points per game in conference, which is second in the Big West. She also is second in field goal percentage at .562 percent during conference. She's also tied for fourth in rebounds per game (7.3).

BLOCK PARTY
The Highlanders are second in the Big West in blocked shots with 102, with an average of 4.9 per game. Marina Ewodo had 40 of those and is averaging 1.9 blocks per game, which is second in the Big West. Through 21 games, the team has out-blocked opponents 102-35.

REBOUNDING RATE
The Highlanders have three student-athletes in the Top 10 in defensive rebounds/game: Daphne Gnago is second with 8.6, Jannon Otto is tied for fourth with 7.3 and Marina Ewodo is sixth with 6.7. Gnago's 15 rebounds vs. CSUN is the most during Big West play so far this season.

ASSISTING SUCCESS
UCR has out-assisted opponents so far this season. They are averaging 16 assists per game, which is first in the Big West. Big West opponents are averaging 12.4.