Keilanei Cooper
Carlos Puma
75
Winner UC Riverside UCR 16-14, 10-6
67
Cal State Fullerton CSF 14-15, 6-10
Winner
UC Riverside UCR
16-14, 10-6
75
Final
67
Cal State Fullerton CSF
14-15, 6-10
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
UC Riverside UCR 12 18 22 23 75
Cal State Fullerton CSF 23 16 14 14 67

Game Recap: Women's Basketball |

Women's Basketball Picks Up 75-67 Comeback Win Over Cal State Fullerton

FULLERTON, Calif.—At the 7:44 mark in the second quarter of Saturday's game against Cal State Fullerton, the UC Riverside Women's Basketball team was down by 17 points.

It would have been easy to throw in the towel and focus on the Big West Tournament that begins next week. The Highlanders did anything but that. Instead, they dug deep and got a 75-67 comeback victory.  

"This is a game that we could have given up on, but we didn't," head coach John Margaritis said. "That's been a major theme to our season."

It's that kind of mental and physical toughness that helped the Highlanders (16-14, 10-6) get the No. 3 seed in the Big West Tournament. The team will play on Wednesday at 6 p.m. The opponent is still to be determined.

While the Highlanders started out strong, shooting 57.1 percent from the field through the first five minutes of the game, the team went 1-for-10 the rest of the quarter and went into the second quarter down 23-12.

The Highlanders offense picked up in the second quarter in large part because of the bench. Lauryn Pointer and Jalyn Clay combined to score seven of the team's 18 points. UCR went into halftime down 39-30 after Clay made a layup at the buzzer.

"In the beginning we just couldn't make any shots," Margaritis said. "We were rushing. Our goal was to get the lead down to single digits at halftime."

A trio of Titans were hard to stop for the Highlanders in the first half. Amiee Book had 11 points (4-for-4), while Jade Vega and Carolyn Gill had eight points. The team managed to hold Book to just three points in the second half.

UCR cut the Titans lead to two points after going on a 10-3 run to begin the third quarter. During that stretch, Malou De Kergret hit two three-pointers. At the end of the quarter, she cut Fullerton's lead to just one point by draining another three-pointer with 19 seconds left.  

With 8:17 left in the fourth quarter, De Kergret made a layup to give the Highlanders a 56-55 lead. It marked the team's first lead since 5:22 in the first quarter.

Things remained tight the rest of the quarter. One of the biggest buckets of the game came when Tianna Eaton hit a jumper with 1:28 left to give the team a five point lead. Before the shot, she was 0-for-6 from the field.

For the second straight game, Marina Ewodo got into foul trouble, picking up her fourth foul with 6:14 left in the third quarter. Margaritis kept Ewodo on the floor, believing she would play smart enough not to foul out.

Not only did she not get a fifth foul, she excelled on offense. Ewodo scored 15 of her team-high 19 points in the second half. She also tallied nine rebounds and six assists.

Keilanei Cooper was involved in every way during the game and kept the team energy up in the first half when things could have easily gone south. Not only did she have 17 points, she also had six assists, five steals and two blocks.

"She was focused and she wanted to win," Margaritis said. "She brought her game up to a really high level."

Daphne Gnago, who played 32 minutes, scored 13 points and had 15 rebounds (eight offensive).

"We had a lot of big shots tonight," Margaritis said. "It was a true team effort. They had to keep their composure and keep their wits about them and they did it."