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Highlanders
Holds Off Titans Rally, 49-47 Jan. 18, 2003 – Riverside, Calif. Box Score UC Riverside's Agy Frankovits notched a double-double with 18 points and 19 rebounds and the Highlander defense held off a furious Cal State Fullerton rally in the final minutes of the contest to escape with a 49-47 victory on Saturday at the Student Rec Center in Riverside. Fullerton falls to 3-12 overall and 1-3 in the Big West. The Titans remain winless on the road at 0-6. UC Riverside improved to 4-11 overall and earned its first conference victory of the season, improving to 1-3 in league play. The Titans were led offensively by junior Rochelle Ortega, who notched 13 points and seven rebounds on the night. Senior Heather Hansen, the team's leading scorer, was held to just one point (coming on a free throw midway through the second half) after missing all nine of her shots. She did, however, lead the team with eight rebounds. UC Riverside also had two other players in double figures on the night. Trecha Kennedy came off the bench and contirbuted 11 points while Crystal Harris had 10 points. Cal State Fullerton seemed doomed, trailing by eight points midway through the second half, but poor shooting by the Highlanders left the door open for a Titan comeback. Fullerton exploded for a 12-4 run to tie the game at 43-43 and set up some nervous last-minute moments. Harris hit on a pair of free throws and Fullerton junior Tamara Quinn answered with a wide-open lay-up and was fouled to tie the game and give the Titans a chance to tie. Quinn missed the free throw, however, and back-to-back lay-ups by Frankovits gave UCR a four-point advantage with 1:57 remaining. Ortega scored inside to cut the deficit to two points 18 seconds later and Fullerton actually had a chance to tie the game on three different occassions in a span of 16 seconds. A missed three-pointer by Quinn hit the back of the rim and rebounded right back out to her on the wing. Her follow-up jumper was short, but it found the hands of Ortega who couldn't get the short lay-up to fall in traffic as Riverside cleared it out. On the next posession, Quinn stole the ball away from UCR's Casandra Reeves, but could not get the 10-foot jumper to fall. The Highlanders had a chance to ice the game as Frankovits, who was 6-for-6 at the line to this point, missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and Quinn got the rebound with four seconds remaining and a chance to tie. However, Quinn's shot from just inside the half-court line went high off the backboard and the Highlanders escaped. Cal State Fullerton shot .353 from the field for the game, including just under 40 percent from the floor in the second half. UC Riverside was ice cold from the floor, shooting just 29 percent for the game, but outrebounded the TItans, 46-37. Cal State Fullerton returns to action on Thursday (Jan. 23) as the Titans host Idaho at 7 p.m. at the Titan Gym. That game can be heard live on AM 1370 KWRM and simulcast on the Internet on www.TitanSports.org. ####
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