The UC Riverside Highlanders cruised to an easy win over Cal State Fullerton,
72-48 on Sunday afternoon at the Student Recreation Center in Riverside,
CA. With the win, the Highlanders improve to 12-8 overall and 9-1 in the
Big West Conference, while the Titans fall to 3-19 overall and 1-10 in
conference.
Riverside used a 10-0 run with 10:57 left in the game to extend the lead
from 45-30 to 55-30 with 10:57 remaining in the game to blow away the
Titans with their biggest margin of victory since defeating UC Irvine
by 30 points on January 5th.
The Highlanders had 10 of their 13 players get into the scoring column
and seven scored five or more points. Crystal Harris led the way with
13 points while Stephanie Hughes and Amy Houchens added 10 each.
Heather Hansen was the only Titan in double figures with 16 points while
also grabbing six rebounds.
UCR forced Fullerton into 30 turnovers and held Titan leading scorer Tricia
Lamb scoreless on 0-of-4 shooting with two turnovers in 21 minutes of
play. The Highlanders also out-rebounded the Titans 35-30 as Houchens
grabbed a game-high eight boards.
The Titans shot 16-of-40 (40%) as the Highlanders allowed only 48 points,
the lowest total since allowing Cal Baptist 43 points on December 19th.
The Highlanders finished the game 24-of-59 (40.7%) and 18-of-24 (75%)
from the free throw line.
The Highlanders came out firing on all cylinders to begin the game, hitting
seven of their first eight shots to take an opening 14-4 lead. Riverside
took their biggest lead at 18-4 with 12:39 remaining with Harris doing
most of the damage, scoring eight of her ten first half points during
the run.
UCR cooled off the rest of the half, hitting only 8-of-22, however Fullerton
had their own shooting troubles and could only get within ten. The Titans
shot 8-of-21 (38.1%) and had 16 first half turnovers.
